"Of course, we will not have such regulation as in China. I will even say more — even in China this regulation often does not bring, perhaps, the results to which it was originally oriented. Moreover, we do not strive for such regulation, no firewall appears here", Medvedev said live on the VKontakte social network.
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The prime minister went on saying that Russia should protect itself against the risk of being disconnected from the global Internet, emphasizing that the recently introduced bill that would establish a "sovereign" Internet was aimed at making the Russian Internet sustainable.
"We need to protect our interests, not so that we don't disconnect something, but so that we are not disconnected. That is also possible. After all, the Internet is not just a stream of news, it is a huge number of technologies, it is an industrial Internet, a medical Internet. And what if at some point we find ourselves being cut off from another world?" Medvedev said.
According to the prime minister, the "sovereign" internet bill seeks to provide Runet with sustainability in order to ensure protection in case of disconnection.
He also noted that Runet had as many as 300 million users, while the Russian language was the third most widespread language on the global web.
"Now we have a large network segment — 300 million users. The Russian world, so to say, in a correct understanding of this term. This is the third language of networks. And, interestingly, every second site is in Russian… we apparently love this business and are actively creating it," Medvedev said.
According to the Medvedev, Russia, unlike the overwhelming majority of technologically developed and wealthy countries, has its own searchers and social networks frequently used by Russian users, as they are the most convenient and advanced ones.
The prime minister addressed a draft law, adopted by Russian lower chamber in the first reading in February. The legislation seeks to protect the smooth operation of the Russian segment of the global network in case it is threatened from abroad, to the parliament.
The initiative came as a response to the aggressive nature of the US National Cyber Strategy, adopted last September.
