necessity of learning the Olbanian language.’’ The slang it inspired has also led to political neologisms, such as Putings, which refers to political meetings in support of former President Putin,
and whose usage on-air (as opposed to online) landed a Russian TV journalist a stiff fine.
9. LiveInternet, ‘‘Report: From Search Engines, 2009,’’ http://www.liveinternet.ru/stat/ru/
searches.html?slice=ru.
10. Nick Wilsdon, ‘‘Yandex Releases Autumn Report on Russian Blogosphere,’’ Multilingual
Search, November 12, 2007, http://www.multilingual-search.com/yandex-releases-autumn-report
-on-russian-blogosphere/12/11/2007.
11. Yandex, ‘‘Sostoyaniye Blogosfery Rossiykogo Interneta,’’ [The State of the Russian Blogosphere],
2007, http://download.yandex.ru/company/yandex_on_blogosphere_autumn_2007.pdf.
12. Raymond Gordon, Jr., ed., Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. (Dallas: SIL International, 2005).
13. For example, in mid-1995 the Federal Agency for Communication and Information (FAPSI)
announced a joint venture with Relcom to create a secure business network. But FAPSI’s interests
in Relcom had less to do with security than with its growing business interests. FAPSI recognized
that the Internet was becoming an important channel for business transactions. It wanted part of
this market. Its intervention was part of a broader effort aimed at using its special position with
respect to responsibility for state communications and security as means to seek rents from Russian and foreign businesses. By the time the Relcom deal had been announced, FAPSI had already
secured legislation that required all use of cryptography in Russia to be licensed by FAPSI. Similarity, it had won the exclusive right to produce smart cards for the Russian market. Both moves had
essentially given it a monopoly over the critical technologies required by the banking sector in
Russia, as well as a future stake in all e-commerce. FAPSI was also present in the telecommunications market more broadly. The legislation creating Sviazinvest, the state-dominated holding company that owned shares in Russian telecommunications companies, required that senior officers
from the service were present on the board of every major telecommunications player. Before
long, the boards of most telecommunications companies were filling up with retired ex-FAPSI generals. In 1997 the FAPSI–Relcom deal collapsed, as the agency itself was disbanded over allegations
of corruption by its leadership. Its assets, which included most of Russia’s signal intelligence capacity, were reabsorbed into the FSB. But by that time, Relcom’s dominance of the Internet market
in Russia and the CIS was on the wane. The Internet was becoming a profitable business, and telecom operators where quickly entering the Internet market and putting former Relcom nodes out
of business.
14. The term ‘‘prihvatizatsia’’ is slang, and a neologism of the Russian word for ‘‘theft’’ and the
English term ‘‘privatize.’’
15. See the Russia country profile in this volume.
16. Security Council of the Russian Federation, Information Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation, 2000, http://www.scrf.gov.ru/documents/5.html.
17. Two years prior to the publication of this doctrine, Russia began actively working through the
UN to establish an arms control regime in cyberspace. A. A. Streltsov, ‘‘International Information
Security: Description and Legal Aspects,’’ Disarmament Forum 3 (2007), 5–13.
Control and Subversion in Russian Cyberspace
33
and whose usage on-air (as opposed to online) landed a Russian TV journalist a stiff fine.
9. LiveInternet, ‘‘Report: From Search Engines, 2009,’’ http://www.liveinternet.ru/stat/ru/
searches.html?slice=ru.
10. Nick Wilsdon, ‘‘Yandex Releases Autumn Report on Russian Blogosphere,’’ Multilingual
Search, November 12, 2007, http://www.multilingual-search.com/yandex-releases-autumn-report
-on-russian-blogosphere/12/11/2007.
11. Yandex, ‘‘Sostoyaniye Blogosfery Rossiykogo Interneta,’’ [The State of the Russian Blogosphere],
2007, http://download.yandex.ru/company/yandex_on_blogosphere_autumn_2007.pdf.
12. Raymond Gordon, Jr., ed., Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. (Dallas: SIL International, 2005).
13. For example, in mid-1995 the Federal Agency for Communication and Information (FAPSI)
announced a joint venture with Relcom to create a secure business network. But FAPSI’s interests
in Relcom had less to do with security than with its growing business interests. FAPSI recognized
that the Internet was becoming an important channel for business transactions. It wanted part of
this market. Its intervention was part of a broader effort aimed at using its special position with
respect to responsibility for state communications and security as means to seek rents from Russian and foreign businesses. By the time the Relcom deal had been announced, FAPSI had already
secured legislation that required all use of cryptography in Russia to be licensed by FAPSI. Similarity, it had won the exclusive right to produce smart cards for the Russian market. Both moves had
essentially given it a monopoly over the critical technologies required by the banking sector in
Russia, as well as a future stake in all e-commerce. FAPSI was also present in the telecommunications market more broadly. The legislation creating Sviazinvest, the state-dominated holding company that owned shares in Russian telecommunications companies, required that senior officers
from the service were present on the board of every major telecommunications player. Before
long, the boards of most telecommunications companies were filling up with retired ex-FAPSI generals. In 1997 the FAPSI–Relcom deal collapsed, as the agency itself was disbanded over allegations
of corruption by its leadership. Its assets, which included most of Russia’s signal intelligence capacity, were reabsorbed into the FSB. But by that time, Relcom’s dominance of the Internet market
in Russia and the CIS was on the wane. The Internet was becoming a profitable business, and telecom operators where quickly entering the Internet market and putting former Relcom nodes out
of business.
14. The term ‘‘prihvatizatsia’’ is slang, and a neologism of the Russian word for ‘‘theft’’ and the
English term ‘‘privatize.’’
15. See the Russia country profile in this volume.
16. Security Council of the Russian Federation, Information Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation, 2000, http://www.scrf.gov.ru/documents/5.html.
17. Two years prior to the publication of this doctrine, Russia began actively working through the
UN to establish an arms control regime in cyberspace. A. A. Streltsov, ‘‘International Information
Security: Description and Legal Aspects,’’ Disarmament Forum 3 (2007), 5–13.
Control and Subversion in Russian Cyberspace
33