Vladimir Putin Calls The Internet A ‘CIA Project’

If you follow news you’ll surely be aware that tensions between the U.S. and Russia are soaring these days. Russian President Vladimir Putin is known for taking the hardline and not masking his displeasure with the West. At a press conference earlier today, Putin branded the internet as a “CIA project.” He said that Russia must fight for its interests on the internet, which he believes is “still developing” is a project of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

When asked exactly how the CIA is controlling the global internet Putin declined to go into specifics. His comments came soon after the Russian parliament passed a law that requires all social media websites operating in the country to maintain servers in Russia. The websites also have to retain all user data for at least six months.

Russia’s Facebook alternative, Vkontakte, denied the government’s requests for data on Ukrainian protesters. After a week, Vkontakte’s founder sold the company to a Russian businessman believed to have close ties with Putin.

At the press conference Putin also had harsh words for Yandex, the largest search engine in Russia that pulls in more traffic than Google in the country. Yandex is hosted in Netherlands and Putin isn’t too happy about that. He claims that the company is housing its servers outside Russia “not only for tax reasons but for other considerations, too” again declining to go into specifics about the “other considerations.”

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Web