On June 10, during the Internet Entrepreneurship in Russia Forum, participants met with President Vladimir Putin. Andrei Kolesnikov, Director of the Coordinating Center for Internet National Domain, was among the participants. Representatives of major Russian internet companies – Yandex, VKontakte, Rambler@Co, RBC and OZON – also attended. The forum was organized by the Forum for the Development of Internet Initiatives.
The meeting with the President focused on the most topical issues in the industry.
The participants discussed prospects for Internet development, the relationship between the industry and the government, online education and the legal regulation of the online environment. Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh asked the government to support educational programs and create conditions for training internet professionals. Mail.ru Group Board Chairman Dmitry Grishin called for cooperation in developing regulatory tools for the Internet that would be more responsive to business interests. The Chief Information Officer at Inter RAO UES, Dmitry Altukhov, pointed out the importance of stimulating software development in Russia.
At the end of the meeting, Vladimir Putin stressed that it is crucial to make a qualitative breakthrough in every area of Internet development, including the development of software and online services. Objectively, he said, Russia has all the prerequisites for this.
“It was a very constructive discussion. We defined several important issues that we need to discuss with the government,” Andrei Kolesnikov said, commenting on the meeting.
