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Russia's State Duma adopts Stable Runet law

The bill has been adopted in the final reading

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, has adopted the so-called Stable Runet Law in its third and final reading at a plenary meeting on Tuesday.

The law provides for the sustainable operation of the Russian Internet segment in case it is disconnected from the global infrastructure of the World Wide Web.

The bill was devised and presented by Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Andrey Klishas, his First Deputy Lyudmila Bokova and MP Andrei Lugovoy.

The Federation Council is the upper house of the parliament.

According to the final version of the law, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media will be responsible for "the coordination of ensuring the stable, secure and seamless function of the Internet in Russia." It is provided that in case threats to stable Internet operation in Russia arise the service "can exercise centralized control over the communication network of general use." Moreover, the government can determine the types of threats and measures to eliminate them.

The law in particular stipulates development of a national system for receipt of information about domain names or network addresses. It is understood as "the aggregate of interconnected software and hardware intended for storage and receipt of information about network addresses in respect of domain names, including the ones included into the Russian national domain zone, and authorization when permitting domain names."

Requirements to this system, the procedure of its establishment and rules of use will be determined by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media. This agency will also be responsible for registration of persons authorized to form domain names being part of the national domain zone.

If the bill passes all stages of approval, the law will take effect in November 2019, excluding the provisions on cryptographic protection of data and national domain name system, which will come into force on January 1, 2021.