MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The legislation, which comes into force in July 2018, was drafted by lawmaker Irina Yarovaya and dubbed the "Yarovaya package" after her. It was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin last July.
"Even an outsider can see Yarovaya's Big Brother Law violates not only rights, but reason itself," he tweeted. "This law harms both Russians and Russia. Rather than entering into force in 2018, it should be repealed or amended."
I am not Russian, and so cannot vote. But even an outsider can see Yarovaya's #BigBrotherLaw violates not only rights, but reason itself.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) 8 февраля 2017 г.
The bill will require mobile operators and Internet providers to store data on users’ phone talks and online communications for up to six months and hand them over to security services on demand.
Service providers will have to pay for the storage of files shared by users. Russian Deputy Communications Minister Alexei Volin said last month this would cost operators trillions of rubles. He added the ministry had agreed with security agencies that IPTV, torrent and Internet video files, which account for 80 percent of the shared traffic, would not be stored to cut expenses to 100 billion rubles ($1.7 billion).
