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West blocks Russia’s initiatives to regulate the Internet, Lavrov says

The Russian top diplomat noted that there had been negotiations in the International Telecommunication Union for years

© Ruslan Shamukov/TASS

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Putin says Russia may be cut off from Internet

HO CHI MINH CITY, February 25. /TASS/. The development of generally established rules for regulating the Internet is hardly possible in the near future, and the Western countries are blocking Russia’s initiatives, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday, speaking at the conference "International Cooperation in a Troubled Word," that was organized by the Valdai Discussion Club in partnership with the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.

"There have been negotiations in the International Telecommunication Union for years, if not decades, on how to operate the Internet so that not to offend anyone," he said. "There is no result, and there won’t be any - I’m sure about it - in the near future, for obvious reasons." Lavrov reiterated that earlier Russia’s initiatives approved by the UN General Assembly were not supported by almost all Western countries.

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