On January 17, an expanded meeting of the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communication of the Russian State Duma was held. The meeting was attended by Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ Andrey Vorobyev and Deputy Director of the Coordination Center Andrei Romanov.
The expert council discussed draft law No. 608767-7 On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation. At the end of 2018, this draft law was submitted to the State Duma for consideration by members of the Federation Council Andrei Klishas and Lyudmila Bokova and State Duma deputy Andrei Lugovoi. In particular, it concerns amending the laws On Communications and On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection.
The draft law defines the necessary traffic routing rules, cross-border communication lines and traffic exchange points and provides for the possibility of installing technical means on communication networks that determine the source of transmitted traffic. Proposals are also being made to create infrastructure that ensures the operability of Russian internet resources if it is impossible for Russian telecom operators to connect to foreign root internet servers.
The Coordination Center has submitted feedback on this draft law, stating that it needs serious improvement. “The Coordination Center supports the idea that underlies the draft law, but the proposed implementation still needs clarification. Unfortunately, it is difficult to understand from the presented text of the draft law exactly what is to be done, since the wording is very general. In order to give a more complete and clear assessment of the draft law, it is necessary to elaborate in the text itself the specific mechanisms for its implementation, as well as to study the provisions of the by-laws. It is important to note that vague wording may be misinterpreted, which creates reputational risks for Russia in the eyes of the world community,” said Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ and member of the expert council of the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications of the State Duma.