Russia 1997: Year of the "Net"

By Bill Fick

In a surreal digression during an interview on the NTV news program "Itogi" last Sunday evening, Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev said that if he lost the upcoming presidential elections, he would refocus all of his energies on business: selling computers, connecting Chechnya to the Internet, and creating an on-line "virtual library" and information center.

He did not elaborate, and aside from their novelty value his business aspirations probably don’t mean much for the rest of us right now. However, they do offer yet another indication that 1997 will be a year when the profile of the Internet in Russia grows by leaps and bounds and attracts real political attention in unexpected quarters.

Although government scientific and educational organs in the former Eastern Bloc have so far supported the Internet’s development, or at least shown benign indifference to it, suspicions still run high. Much of the old guard remains deeply ambivalent about the "opening" of the region in general and the new communications media in particular.

Several months ago, a note purportedly excerpted from PC World Belarus and detailing draconian restrictions on Internet use in that country circulated among Internet news and discussion groups related to the former Soviet Union. According to the note, Internet users in Belarus would be required to register at their local police stations and apply for special permission from the Ministry of Foreign affairs, which would be marked in applicants' passports; viloators of the new rule would be punished severely. The message was exposed as a hoax, but not before it created an international stir. The fact that many informed people took such an item seriously suggests that Internet users in the region still feel insecure vis a vis central authorities.

Awareness of the Internet in the Russian government reached a new benchmark with official hearings in the State Duma on December 17 entitled: "Russia and the Internet: the Choice of the Future." The session played to a packed house of industry representatives, people from the educational and scientific community, government officials, and reporters.

The statements and recommendations from this fractious group were varied. But everybody, even the oldest militarist curmudgeons who had probably never seen the Web, agreed that it was pointless to discuss whether the Internet is on balance "good" or "bad". Quite simply, all agreed, the Internet is an objective global reality from which Russia could not isolate itself -- even if it wanted to do so.

The draft of recommendations issued during the hearings contains on the one hand calls for the government to facilitate the development of affordable access and warns on the other hand that Russia must find technical means to block distribution of "insulting and improper materials" and information which could "have negative influence on the health of society".

The danger here is that a lingering tendency to censor and over-regulate coupled with inflammatory statements from the security services about how the CIA is plotting to destroy Russian information systems via electronic warfare over the Internet could result in ill-advised legislation which hobbles the industry here.

The Duma document strikes encouraging chords, arguing that censorhip is counterproductive, proposing that private industry advisory panels assist with legislation. It acknowledges that current attempts by government agencies to monopolize data encryption raise hackles in the private sector and infringe on the independence private companies and individuals should have to protect their own data and information systems.

Finally, the Duma document is very forward-looking in its calls to make new laws and other government information available on-line to private citizens. This is a common practice elsewhere in the world but has barely gotten off the ground in Russia.

The Russian Presidential Administration has its own website at http://www.gov.ru, although with the exception of daily press releases most of the pages, including Yeltsin’s official homepage, are perpetually incomplete with "Attention! Under Reconstruction" logos. Perhaps, with Yeltsin out of the hospital, the website will also enjoy some reanimation.

The US Congressional Research Service has conducted Internet seminars and provided some resources for the Russian Federal Assembly as part of its parliamentary exchange programs, but while the Duma has an internal network and experimental website it still lacks external connectivity to the Internet and does not offer any public information on the Web. The Ukrainian Rada is ahead in this regard, with its website (http://www.rada.kiev.ua) active for almost two years now.

A more dynamic source of information about the Russian government is the National News Service (http://www.nns.ru), which contains a full listing of data about Duma and Federation Council parties, deputies, and structures. During both rounds of the presidential elections NNS mounted a colorful, continuously updated set of candidate profiles, return charts and an electoral map, which are still available for viewing now. NNS also maintains a daily digest of foreign and domestic press as well as a database of complete articles from various Russian periodicals similar to the Nexis database of English-language publications.

In 1997, on-line sources for this kind of information are bound to increase, and we can only hope that on balance the government will see itself as a facilitator and provider of information rather than a policeman and regulator.