UPDATE: Pres dept: Govt cannot help but regulate Web, situation critical

(Adds Kremlin comments in last 3 paragraphs)

MOSCOW, May 26 (PRIME) -- The situation in the Internet sector has become critical and the government cannot help but regulate it, Tatyana Matveyeva, head of the Russian president’s department for information and communication technologies development, said on Wednesday at a meeting held by the communications service.

“The government has started regulating the Internet environment actively, because the current situation, which is unfolding on the Internet now, has become rather, let’s say, critical. It cannot be but regulated,” Matveyeva said.

“From the point of view of the average citizen, one may think that the government is everywhere, it’s got down to regulations, tightening the screws. The government has turned out to be tough here. Perhaps, it evokes a certain negative opinion of the citizens as to the government’s actions.”

President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the Internet is a parallel world and like the ordinary one, it should have laws to regulate all matters.

“The communications service must regulate law and order in the Internet. The thing is that the Internet touches all spheres of life entirely, not the majority of them, but all. The Internet is a parallel world. If there is a working law in our world, which regulates everything, there should be a law regulating everything in the Internet. It is the communications service’s function,” Peskov said.

The president administration’s First Deputy Chief of Staff Sergei Kiriyenko said that the tasks of the communications service will only grow as the Internet’s influence expands and new risks emerge, and the watchdog’s powers will also increase.

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