Degree of secrecy of geographical data in Russia will be reduced – Medvedev

(Interfax – July 31, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev intends to order the ministries and the Moscow government to draw up a document reducing the degree of secrecy of geographical data for the publication of digital maps on the Internet.

“As regards the maps, the draft orders I will sign after our meeting expressly orders various agencies – the Defense Ministry, the Federal Security Service, the Foreign Ministry, the Trade and Economic Development Ministry, and Rosreyestr – and the Moscow government to draw up a document reducing the degree of secrecy of geographical data in general and envisioning the possibility of the publication of digital maps on the Internet,” Medvedev said at the modernization council presidium meeting.

Medvedev said he is talking about the scale of digital maps that is “no larger than [the scale] used by similar commercial services.” “I mean Yandex maps, Google maps, etc. Because otherwise it’s just laughable,” he said.

The issue of excessive secrecy of geographical data was raised in the meeting by acting Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin. “Our geographical data is widespread in Yandex and we cannot publish them on our portals, in our state atlas, and it looks worse than commercial maps. I find that wrong,” Sobyanin said.