April 9, 2009 at 14:11The Ministry of Communications is preparing a list of “strategic Internet companies”
The Russian authorities have repeatedly made it clear that they consider the Internet a strategic direction and are not going to let major foreign players enter the Runet’s search engines and social networks. This was discussed by Medvedev, Putin , and some ministers. The new policy became apparent after the FAS blocked the purchase of the "Runner" by Google after consulting with the presidential administration.
And now at the lower level of the power vertical they decided that they should somehow formalize the “message from above”. The Ministry of Communications and Mass Media began to develop"Safety criteria, on the basis of which companies will be included in the list of strategic." These companies will be protected by the state, and foreign investors will not be allowed here and in related areas in any case.
According to available information, the Ministry of Telecommunications and Communications specialists faced serious difficulties in choosing criteria. They can’t understand at what parameters some web services can be considered strategic, while others cannot. It’s impossible to take the site’s audience as a criterion: not every resource with a large audience is strategically important, a source in the ministry notes.
It is clear that Yandex, Mail.ru, Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte should be included in the list of “strategic” ones. But officials still cannot figure out whether to include Mambu, Liveinternet.ru, and some other sites here. It is also unclear how state protectionism will affect free competition, which is crucial for the development of the Internet market.
And now at the lower level of the power vertical they decided that they should somehow formalize the “message from above”. The Ministry of Communications and Mass Media began to develop"Safety criteria, on the basis of which companies will be included in the list of strategic." These companies will be protected by the state, and foreign investors will not be allowed here and in related areas in any case.
According to available information, the Ministry of Telecommunications and Communications specialists faced serious difficulties in choosing criteria. They can’t understand at what parameters some web services can be considered strategic, while others cannot. It’s impossible to take the site’s audience as a criterion: not every resource with a large audience is strategically important, a source in the ministry notes.
It is clear that Yandex, Mail.ru, Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte should be included in the list of “strategic” ones. But officials still cannot figure out whether to include Mambu, Liveinternet.ru, and some other sites here. It is also unclear how state protectionism will affect free competition, which is crucial for the development of the Internet market.