Russian lawmakers have added 20 entities, including AliExpress, Gmail, and Ikea, to the list of global IT giants that will be required to open offices in the country under a new draft law, Alexander Khinshtein, the chief of the Russian lower house's information policy committee, said on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th May, 2021) Russian lawmakers have added 20 entities, including AliExpress, Gmail, and Ikea, to the list of global IT giants that will be required to open offices in the country under a new draft law, Alexander Khinshtein, the chief of the Russian lower house's information policy committee, said on Monday.
"So far, there are 20 entities to potentially 'land' on the list of online resources [required to open offices in Russia]. Social networks: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. Video hosting sites: YouTube, Twitch.tv. Messengers, mail services: WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, Gmail. Search engines: Google, Bing.com. Hosting providers: Amazon, Digital Ocean, Cloudflare, GoDaddy. Online commerce: Aliexpress.com, Ikea.com, Iherb.com. And also Wikipedia.org," Khinshtein wrote on Telegram.
He noted that all IT giants that potentially fall under the requirements of the bill were invited to a committee meeting.
"As promised, we are ready for an open discussion of the initiative with all interested parties. We have already notified their headquarters by email, both in Russian and in English. We expect to see and hear out them, if not in person, then at least online," Khinshtein added.
Under the draft law, owners of information resources with daily audiences of over 500,000 Russian users will be required to create branches, representative offices or other legal entities in Russia. This measure will allow IT giants to fully represent their interests in the country and establish a channel of communication with Russian regulators.
