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In the first reading, deputies voted in favour of amendments to the federal law “On Communications,” which will require operators to disconnect mobile and landline internet, as well as telephone communications, upon the request of the FSB.
The draft law proposes two amendments. One requires operators to cut off communications if they receive a request from the FSB “for the purpose of protecting citizens and the state from emerging security threats.” The second exempts operators from responsibility for these shutdowns.
The document does not specify the nature of the threats involved. The circumstances under which the FSB will be able to request shutdowns will be determined by the president and the government in separate legal acts.
Sergei Afanasyev, a partner at the legal firm Innopravo, told Faridaily that the draft law does not clarify which specific “communications services” are covered. Russian legislation uses this term to mean postal and electronic communications—the receipt and sending of any kind of messages by any method, including radio, wired, optical, and other electromagnetic systems.
“Simply put, it is not just about mobile internet, but about any other type of communication,” Afanasyev says.
At the same time, he notes that the legal acts that the government and the president will prepare may specify which exact communications services will be disconnected.
Lawyer Alexander Karavaev also says that, in its current form, the draft law can be interpreted broadly.
- Since last year, in many regions of Russia, mobile internet has regularly been shut down under the pretext of protection from drone attacks. In Ulyanovsk Region, a city on the Volga, authorities announced mobile internet would not operate until the end of the war. Shutdowns justified by security concerns also took place in Kamchatka, in the Russian Far East, even though Ukrainian drones have never reached those regions.