The State Duma, in an accelerated procedure, approved a law allowing the FSB to shut down networks without clear justification at the behest of the country’s leadership. Operators will be protected from user complaints in the event of outages.
The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, on Tuesday approved an amendment to the communications law that allows the domestic secret service FSB to order telecommunications operators to block both mobile networks and fixed internet connections. TASR informs about it with reference to the DPA agency.
Deputies approved the amendment in the second and third readings at the extraordinary meeting. According to media reports, the wording according to which such decisions are taken to protect citizens and the state from security threats was omitted from the adopted text.
It was replaced by the passage that the country’s leadership will determine the reasons. For example, it would allow President Vladimir Putin to order a nationwide shutdown of the Internet without having to justify it. The TASS agency said that mobile operators will thus be freed from responsibility if, for example, customers complain about service outages. Mobile networks have been turned off, for example, near airports in the event of a threat of an attack by Ukrainian drones. The amended law will enter into force ten days after it is signed by President Putin.
