Deputy: Russia has no plans to limit work of Google, WhatsApp

MOSCOW, Dec 24 (PRIME) -- Russia will not restrict work or block such services as Google or WhatsApp on its territory, Leonid Levin, head of the information policy committee at the State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, said Thursday at a news conference.

“We have no plans to introduce any limitations, blocking of such services on the territory of the Russian Federation. We cannot influence statements of officials on the matter; we can only influence law creation work. As a committee chairman I want to assure people that they can use these services and don’t worry about it,” Levin said.

Vadim Solovyov, a deputy of the Communist Party, earlier submitted for consideration a bill to ban state employees from exploiting a number of messengers and handsets, which can be used by foreign special services to gain access to information. A list of such services and devices was proposed to be determined by a presidential decree.

Levin also said that today “cooperation of these or those services with law enforcement bodies is necessary to get or provide information quickly, when it’s a question of danger from the point of view of the state interests.”

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