Minister says info on compensations for data retention rumors

MOSCOW, Feb 14 (PRIME) -- Russian Communications and Mass Media Minister Nikolai Nikiforov denied on Tuesday reports on compensations of operators’ expenses on complying with the data retention laws, and the ministry will shortly prepare amendments to the much-criticized regulation for public discussion.

“These are rumors…that are not true,” Nikiforov said. Mass media reported earlier in February that the Economic Development Ministry had suggested offsetting operators’ expenses on the fulfillment of the laws from the universal service fund, to which operators contribute 1.2% of revenue.

When signing the controversial data retention laws in the middle of 2016, President Vladimir Putin ordered the government to support connection operators, whose tariffs should not rise higher than inflation.

The laws oblige connection operators and Internet companies to store content of calls and messages for up to six months from July 1, 2018. Metadata must be stored by connection operators for three years and one year for Internet companies from July 20, 2016.

Nikiforov also said that the Communications and Mass Media Ministry will present amendments to the laws in the nearest future.

“I think we’re going to unveil draft amendments for public discussions. The draft will be open for all. Wording of parameters is left to be agreed upon; we’re going to complete it soon,” the minister said.

Deputy Communications Minister Alexei Volin said in January that there are agreements and understanding that the required volume of stored information could be reduced by 10 times by excluding IPTV, torrents and Internet video.

The initiative could curtail overall one-time expenses of operators to 100 billion rubles from some 5 trillion rubles needed to store the whole flow of information.

(58.0619 rubles – U.S. $1)

End