Federation Council approves bill on sustainable work of Runet

MOSCOW, Apr 22 (PRIME) -- The Federation Council, the parliament’s upper house, approved on Monday a bill on sustainable functioning of the Runet, the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet, in case of threats from abroad.

The document stipulates creation of a center of monitoring and management of a public network, which will ensure accessibility of services of connection in the country in any extraordinary situations and coordinate efforts of operators in such circumstances at the communications service.

The bill will take effect in November, while propositions on cryptographic protection of information and a national system of domain names will take effect on January 1, 2021.

To become law, the bill must be signed by the president.

Information of state authorities and state companies in the Internet will be additionally protected by encoding, and connection operators will be liberated from an obligation to restrict access to websites with banned data if they install special equipment to resist threats.

The order of installation, exploitation, and upgrade of such equipment will be set by the government.

Internet networks without access to the Web are not subject to the bill.

Deputy Digital Development Minister Alexei Volin said, “All users of the Internet are interested in having it sustainable, not being targeted from outside, which could result in its disconnection.”

“This is why the main task set for the ministry is to ensure flawless and safe functioning of the Internet on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

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