Putin Calls the Internet a 'CIA Project'
 

Russia's Putin Calls the Internet a 'CIA Project'

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called the Internet a CIA project and made comments about Russia's biggest search engine Yandex, sending the company's shares plummeting.

The Kremlin has been anxious to exert greater control over the Internet, which opposition activists ? barred from national television ? have used to promote their ideas and organize protests.

Russia's parliament this week passed a law requiring social media websites to keep their servers in Russia and save all information about their users for at least half a year. Also, businessmen close to Putin now control Russia's leading social media network, VKontakte.

Speaking Thursday at a media forum in St. Petersburg, Putin said that the Internet originally was a "CIA project" and "is still developing as such."

To resist that influence, Putin said, Russia needs to "fight for its interests" online.

A Russian blogger complained to Putin that foreign websites and Yandex, the web search engine which is bigger in Russia than Google, are storing information on servers abroad, which could be undermining Russia's security.

In his reply, Putin mentioned unspecified pressure that was exerted on Yandex in its early years and chided the company for its registration in the Netherlands "not only for tax reasons but for other considerations, too."

Although Putin's comments didn't include any specific threats to Yandex, one of Russia's most successful tech companies, its shares plunged by 5 percent at the Nasdaq's opening on Thursday.

In a statement Thursday, Yandex said the company got registered in the Netherlands "solely due to the specifics of corporate law," not because of the low taxes there and added that its core business is based in Russia and "practically all the taxes are paid in Russia."

Reacting to Putin's claims that Yandex was under "pressure," the company said it got its first investments from international funds and investors, "which is the usual practice for any online start-up in any country."

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wir...oject-23453779

Typical for all dictators - "we are under siege and I am the only one who can defend us."

yes, sometimes its really interesting to see what is inside heads of nations' presidents etc...

but I wouldnt say that's it because he is dictator...it is rather because he was/is KGB employee...and world of inteligence is - from its nature - full of Paranoya ;-))

He's not paranoid. He is an excellent chess player and knows how to take the king with nothing more than pawns.

these two things can coexist together without problems...bobby fischer was also genius chess player ;-)

Bobby fischer also was schizo

I've told many times that he seems to have some serious age-related mentality problem. Paranoia is only one of the symptoms :2 cents:

Wasn't "SuperEva" a KGB project? Maybe Putin should smell what hes shoveling.