Russian Parliament Gears Up for Role in Net Economy

The Internet has been one of the last frontiers unconquered by Russia’s
galling government regulations, but that may soon change.


During its spring
session, the national parliament (known as the State Duma) is gearing up to
consider as many as 15 bills to regulate the Internet, said a Duma
official.


“We need to manage our online relationships,” said Yury Travkin,
a consultant to the Duma’s commission on information policy, in a telephone
interview. “It is important for Russia to regulate its Internet if it wants
to be serious about entering into the WTO [World Trade Organization].”

While Travkin declined to list all the pending bills because committees are
still massaging the drafts into shape, he said the package will most likely
contain provisions banning commercial spam, or junk e-mail, protecting
intellectual property, preventing copyright infringement, securing online
payments and addressing the legitimacy of digital signatures.


A bill that
is likely to draw fire from defendants of free speech stipulates that all
Internet publications need to register with the Communications Ministry if
they want to be considered members of the mass media.

Dmitry Itskovich, who runs the news and information site Polit.ru, said in
a telephone interview that this bill had raised more fears than many online
news organizations felt were justified. Many of the organizations had
already voluntarily registered with the ministry not only in order to
qualify for tax breaks available to the media, but also to be officially
recognized, he said.


“I don’t think online publications should be treated
any differently than other media,” Itskovich added. Other bills seem more
likely to kill, rather than foster, the virtual domains deputies wish to
regulate.

The nationally prominent daily newspaper “Segodnya” reported that the
Duma’s economic policy committee has recommended that only officially
registered, self-employed business people be able to shop in Internet
stores. From a legal perspective, the proposed regulations will assist
Russian companies blazing the trails of electronic commerce, said Timofei
Kotenev, an e-commerce specialist at law firm Lovells.


“This will create
one legal base and give a green light to the development of online commerce
on Russia,” said Kotenev, adding that since the Internet knows no national
boundaries, the Duma should be sure the bills are written according to
international standards. While he welcomes the government’s involvement as
long as it facilitates the growth of the Internet, Kotenev warns some
regulations may go too far.


For instance, he said, under the proposed
bills, companies that want to use digital signatures for legally-binding
contracts will have to register with the Federal Communications and
Information Agency – a move that could lead to privacy abuses. Adversaries
of government control over the World Wide Web can easily justify their
apprehensions.

The ex-KGB, now called the Federal Security Service, or FSB, already
monitors e-mails and other Internet communications though a program named
SORM, or System for Operational-Investigative Activities. The FSB claims
the program helps catch cyber criminals, terrorists, and spies. SORM
requires security services to obtain a warrant prior to looking at
electronic transmissions, but critics argue the FSB can simply ignore the
rules.


Ignoring existing rules is precisely the problem, according to Tom
Adshead, an Internet and telecom analyst at Troika Dialog. “There are a
bunch of existing laws that are totally ignored, so all they have to do is
apply them to the Internet and use the legal system to enforce them.”

Adshead said the main stumbling blocks to the widespread acceptance of the
Internet in Russia is not the lack of applicable laws. “What’s holding the
growth of the Internet here is the fact that people don’t have th

e money to
buy computers, and I don’t see that changing any time soon,” he said.


The
number of computer users in Russia doubled last year to an estimated 3
million, which is still less than 2 percent of the population, Adshead
said. IDC, formerly International Data Corporation, forecasts there will be
a total of 9.4 million Internet users in Russia by 2004.

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