Russian Industry Opposes Extending Yarovaya Law to Technological Networks
The Commission on Communications and IT of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) has criticized the Ministry of Digital Development’s initiative to expand the scope of the “Yarovaya Law” to include companies’ technological networks, according to Kommersant, which reviewed the commission’s opinion on the relevant bill. Representatives of the industrial sector sent their feedback to Alexander Khinshtein, head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy.
Bill No. 1154099-7 was submitted to the State Duma by the government in April of last year but has not yet been considered in its first reading. The State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption immediately supported the bill. The proposed measure would affect businesses that own technological communication networks with autonomous system (AS) numbers. Typically, these are internet providers and large organizations such as Russian Railways (RZD), Gazprom, Yandex, and others. They could be required to store information about internal communications, including records of the receipt, transmission, delivery, and/or processing of voice information, text messages, images, audio, video, or other messages.
The obligation to store information transmitted over communication channels has existed since 2016, and authorities now want to extend it to owners of technological communication networks as well. The State Duma Committee on Information Policy told Kommersant that the bill is scheduled for consideration in April, and the deadline for submitting amendments has been extended to February.
What Are Technological Networks?
According to Alexey Boyko, an analyst at MForum Analytics, a technological network is a telecommunications network used for production-related communications. “For example, it could be an LTE network through which machines, robotic trucks, and a ‘digital twin’ of the production process exchange data. It can also provide communication services for staff, but that’s not its main purpose,” he explained. In his view, extending the Yarovaya Law to such networks may be intended to give authorities more data on actual production metrics.
In Russia, companies like Gazprom, Russian Railways, ALROSA, Norilsk Nickel, LUKOIL, and other major organizations have technological networks. The RSPP commission notes that due to their decentralized architecture (without a single control center or traffic routing), it is not always possible to collect the required data from technological networks into a single database.
Concerns Over Implementation and Costs
The commission’s opinion states that to comply with the law, some companies would have to develop and implement an information system to collect and store the necessary data. “This would require significant expenses, since, due to the structure of most such networks, they would have to be completely replaced.” There are also risks of disrupting technological processes and halting the operations of major enterprises.
The Ministry of Digital Development assured Kommersant that only small volumes of information would need to be stored, as the actual videos, photos, and texts are not subject to storage. “The bill has been revised following a meeting with representatives of the Association of Computer and Information Technology Enterprises (APKIT),” the ministry added. Previously, APKIT had expressed concerns that companies would have to store hundreds of terabytes of data.
According to Alexey Boyko, implementing add-ons to technological communication networks with the necessary data collection functions will “require considerable time and investment.” He also questioned the purpose of the project, “unless you consider the desire of server manufacturers to force companies to buy equipment they don’t actually need.”