PRESS: Russian ministry to offer special network for military

MOSCOW, Mar 30 (PRIME) -- Russia’s communications ministry will prepare amendments to the law to create a protected connection network for the military, whose absence obstructs privatization of state-controlled telecom giant Rostelecom, business daily Vedomosti reported Monday.

The government’s stake of 46.99% of common shares of Rostelecom was put on the privatization list for 2014–2016, but the deal was delayed indefinitely. The sale was opposed by special services and the Defense Ministry.

The ministry said that amendments will provide the military with all connection services. A transboundary character of information space leads to abuse of use of IT technologies, including computer attacks on important information infrastructure and state information resources.

Several sources told the daily that the ministry said that prior to Rostelecom’s sale, a looped network of special connection should be created.

A source at one of the major operators said that new expensive projects would be hardly feasible due to budget cuts at least by 10%. Earlier, a source, who had participated in several federal IT projects, estimated the construction of a looped network at 150 billion rubles and said that the project would take several years to take shape.

(57.7279 rubles – U.S. $1)

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