Nervous Kremlin seeks to purge Russia's internet of 'western' influences
Late last month, the FSB deputy director called for a purge of the Russian blogosphere's western influences, echoing Putin's line that Russia's discontent is being fomented from abroad. Sergei Smirnov said, during a regional security conference, western secret services were using "new technologies" to "create and maintain constant tension in societies
"The goal is serious – up to deposing the political regime that has existed in these countries," Smirnov said. "We know that the problem of the Arab spring, the problem of revolutions that occurred on the African coast, they all faced it.
"Society must defend itself. If the enemy uses 'dirty' technology, we need to purge the space from such activity in some way," he said.
The calls for internet regulation began one week after the first major anti-government protest erupted in December in the wake of a contested parliamentary vote. Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia's security council and former head of the FSB, cited China, as well as the United States, as an example of "reasonable regulation" of the internet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/kremlin-purge-russia-internet-western-influences
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