Report: Kremlin says operators overly worried about content law

MOSCOW, Jul 8 (PRIME) -- The indignation of Russian mobile phone operators about a law ordering them to store content is excessive and groundless; they should cooperate with the government to neutralize all fears instead, business daily Vedomosti reported Friday, quoting presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov as saying.

“Certainly, one may voice their worries, but there is no reason for such alarming statements,” Peskov said.

“The other thing is if this contact (with the government) does not abate concerns, then there is a reason to worry. I think that so far such an excessive reaction is groundless, because we have prerequisites for cooperation to determine how to apply the law so that it would not damage interests of operators. It’s a matter of work which, of course, requires a constructive approach both on the part of the government and operators.”

President Vladimir Putin signed into law on Thursday bills obliging operators to keep records of subscribers’ talks and correspondence for three years, starting from July 20, currently stored for about six months; and their content – like voice calls and texts – for up to six months, starting from July 1, 2018.

Operators earlier estimated their total expenses on the creation of a storage system at 2.2 trillion rubles, which would bring losses to them and smaller tax revenues for the budget.

(64.0500 rubles – U.S. $1)

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