Official says invest climate to suffer if Telegram goes unpunished

DALIAN, China, Jun 27 (PRIME) – The Russian investment climate will not be affected by a looming blocking of Telegram, the climate will deteriorate if the messenger is allowed to work regardless of its law violations, Deputy Economic Development Minister Alexei Gruzdev told reporters on Tuesday.

“It’s the matter for the regulator, but I think that it’s extremely important to stick to the rules that are imposed, and it’s the basis for a stable investment climate,” Gruzdev said.

“If there is some regulation, and it’s breached and is left without consequences, it will negatively destabilize investment climate.

“Everyone speaks about stability. I won’t judge whether the regulation is right or not, but if it exists, and as the authorities in charge say that certain requirements are not respected, it is not good or right.”

Alexander Zharov, director of the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, has called publicly on Telegram to follow the law and fill in a form and submit it to the service to be added to the register of organizers of information distribution or be blocked.

Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov said that Russia would not win from possible blocking of the service in the light of the U.S.’ control over other messengers, and correspondence of Russian officials would flow to the U.S.-controlled clouds Apple iCloud/Google Drive via WhatsApp and Viber.

The potential blocking will not make the communication more difficult for terrorists and drug dealers thanks to abundance of other messengers run on virtual private networks (VPN), Durov said earlier.

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