Russia's Federation Council Notes Constructive Dialogue Between Moscow, Google

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th September, 2018) Russia's Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, noted on Thursday the successful completion of a substantive dialogue between US tech giant Google and Russian authorities regarding the company's possible violation of the country's law on elections.

Last week, the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) and media watchdog Roskomnadzor warned Google that running ads containing appeals by opposition for citizens to take part in protests on September 9, the day of the country's regional and municipal elections, on its video sharing platform, YouTube, could have been illegal.

It was later reported that Google had blocked a number of these ads.

"The constructive reaction of Google to the reasonable comments of the Russian side indicates its respect for the Russian law on placement of political advertising during the elections," the chairman of the Federation Council's commission on international relations, Andrey Klimov, said.

In turn, Alexander Klyukin, a CEC member, told Sputnik that the commission did not have any complaints regarding Google.

According to Russian law, campaigning of any kind is not permitted in the 24-hour period before and day of any election.