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Russia in talks with foreign partners to protect national Web segments

The Internet was conceived as a transboundary environment, and it has been always positioned as a non-state and non-governmental entity, Russian Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov says
Russian Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov  ITAR-TASS/Alexander Astafyev
Russian Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov
© ITAR-TASS/Alexander Astafyev

MOSCOW, October 2. /TASS/. Russia’s Communications Ministry is discussing with foreign partners ways to protect national segments of the Internet, Minister Nikolay Nikiforov said Thursday at a meeting.

“Communications ministers of all non-NATO countries are worried with a similar problem,” Nikiforov said.

The minister said the matter is being tackled by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization). “We should make it in such a way that the national segment, and even international ones, including BRICS and SCO, would continue working in any case, regardless of the position of our Western partners,” the minister said.

Nikiforov said he hopes Internet segments will not be blocked by political partners. “The Internet was conceived as a transboundary environment, and it has been always positioned as a non-state and non-governmental entity,” he said.

The official reiterated that the Russian ministry is not discussing blocking Internet operations. The government only focuses on the protection of the national Web segment in case of any restrictions slapped on by Western partners.