Russia sets heavy fines for messaging service in breach of legal duties

MOSCOW, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law an amendment to the Russian Code of Administrative Offences, imposing penalties of up to one million rubles (17,000 U.S. dollars) to instant messaging service providers that fail to perform legal duties, a Russian government gazette said Wednesday.

The amendment, published on Russia's official portal of legal information, stipulates that operators of instant messaging exchange service should be subject to an administrative penalty if they fail to fulfill their obligations established by the legislation of the Russian Federation on information, information technologies and information protection.

The penalty is set from 3,000 rubles (51 U.S. dollars) to 5,000 rubles (85 U.S. dollars) for individuals, from 30,000 (510 U.S. dollars) to 50,000 rubles (850 U.S. dollars) for officials, and from 800,000 (13,625 U.S. dollars) to one million rubles for legal entities, according to the document.

The amendment will come into force on Jan. 1, 2018, it said.

Earlier in May, the Russian telecommunication watchdog Roskomnadzor temporarily blocked the access to a number of globally popular messaging applications including WeChat, Blackberry Messenger, Line and Vchat, for the reason of "failing to provide the contact information necessary for registration with authorities." Enditem