Articles prepared by Michael Novikov for EuropeMedia in 2002
Joint-stock financial corporation Sistema together with Finnish companies is planning to invest one billion USD over the next five years in Indian mobile communications. AFK Sistema had negotiations with Finnish venture comapnies CapMan, Aboa Venture and Nordea Capital. Investing in Indian telecom was also discussed with Finnish telecom operator Elisa Communications and its mobile communications subsidiary Radiolinja. According to Global Wireless, Sistema's plans found support from the Russian Govenment over the industry, science and technologies minister Ilya Klebanov. Till now Sistema's interests covered the CIS markets. In June Sistema's subsidiary Mobilnye Telesistemy opened its network in Minsk, Belorussia. In November they acquired majority in Ukranian UMC. Another Sistema's subsidiary, MGTS, was the only candidate last autumn to buy 51 per cent of Moldtelecom (Moldova). Analists believe that Mobilnye Telesistemy has interest in East European markets, including Romania. AFK Sistema does not hide that the corporation intends to found joint ventures with Indian software development and telecom equipment production companies. According to Sistema's first vice president Lavan Vasadze, it is prematurely to discuss such a perspective before India's parliament elections to be held in 2004. Sistema's representatives declined to comment plans to participate in telecom operator projects in India.
Source: Internet.ru, http://www.internet.ru
The St. Petersburg office of the Russian Ministry on Antimonopoly Policy (MAP), that is also responsible for advertisement regulation, ordered to shut down web sites of the alcohol producers "Veda Sistema" and "Liviz". According to the Russian law, advertisement of strong alcohol beverages is prohibited anywhere except points of sales. MAP believes that vodka advertisement on the Internet is the same offence as alcohol advertisement on the streets or on TV. According to MAP's Natalia Ploshina, corporate web sites of alcohol producers cannot be considered as points of sales since product delivery takes place in other locations. People under 18 year old have access to the Internet. Therefore information about vodka, bottle pictures should be addressed primarily to dealers and access to such information should be restricted (by password), said Ploshina. Source: Vedomosti newspaper, http://www.Vedomosti.ru
Federal project "Cyberpost" is becoming more popular in Russian regions. Only in October 2002 over 250 thousand people used the service. From 2001 Russia is developing a programme of providing public access to the Internet at the state post offices over the country. The project is aimed to ease Internet service access to those who cannot afford to purchase a computer. According to Leonid Reiman, Russian Telecom minister, those access points are becoming very popular. At the moment over two thousands of the state post offices equipped with three thousand PCs are offering the service. "One of major goals we set is a further development of modern technologies and services. And we should pay a special attention to make those services available to a broad range of the Russian population groups," - said Leonid Reiman. Source: Internet.ru, http://www.Internet.ru
In November 2002 it was announced that PayCash technology will be used for a new project in cross border monetary Internet transfers. This payment technology has been developed by Alkor Paycash Group of companies in Russia, and now is known to be implemented in a number of international projects, like 7-Eleven 's Vcom Internet kiosks, Cyphermint and Paycasheuro payment systems, etc. According to the contact signed by Cyphermint Inc. (US representative of PayCash) two American companies - CashOnInternet.Com and eArtherm Inc. will implement that payment mechanism to provide Internet transfers from USA to Russia and Ukraine. A new service will allow to send money via web interface and to receive to a banking account or through any post office within territory of Russia and Ukraine. A market of monetary transfers among private persons is about 3 to 5 billions USD and transfers from the USA are a significant part of it. A new service is planned to start by January of 2003. Source: PayCash, http://www.PayCash.ru
The St. Petersburg's official 300th anniversary site (www.300online.ru) is now available in English, French and German versions. The German version of the site was unveiled on November 20 in Berlin during the "Germany and Russia's Regions: the Russian North-West Federal District" conference. All three foreign-language sites are reduced versions of the main Russian-language Internet project, featuring rolling city news and a weekly analytical round-up of events in St. Petersburg. The project also includes the following sections: "Partnership programmes in the anniversary year", "Foreigners in St. Petersburg", "A catalogue of foreign companies in St. Petersburg", "Virtual postcards of the city", "Information on hotels, cafes and restaurants, entertainment, Internet centers, and car rental in St. Petersburg" and "Weather". A section called "Investments projects in St. Petersburg" will appear soon. The main purpose of the foreign-language versions of the site is to provide foreign media and business partners with detailed information about investment policy and business in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. The site also gives details of important cultural events in the area, preparations for the city's 300th anniversary celebrations, and St. Petersburg's international ties, as well as offering a calendar of events to celebrate the city's anniversary, and giving details of joint projects between Russian and foreign organizations aimed at developing St. Petersburg's relations with other countries. The www.300online.ru project was developed by the Rosbalt News Agency (www.rosbalt.com). The site's partners include: the International press center "300 Years of St. Petersburg", the French Institute in St. Petersburg, the St. Petersburg Information and Business Coordination Center (Berlin, Germany), the Friends of St. Petersburg Society (Turingia, Germany) and the www.russland.ru Internet portal. All the materials on www.300online.ru's foreign-language sites has been translated by EGO Translating company. Source: Rosbalt News Agency, http://www.rosbalt.com 23 Jan 2002: Independent Media becomes shareholder of red-stars.com data AG The Russian publishing house will control divisions of the East European Internet investment holding. Through a share-exchange agreement, Independent Media B.V., the owner of several Russian print and online media outlets, including The St. Petersburg Times, The Moscow Times, Cosmopolitan Men's Health, Yes! and Vedomosti (a Russian joint venture between the Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and Independent Media), has become a shareholder of red-stars.com data AG, Vienna, an East European Internet investor. Simultaneously, red-stars.com will assume 100% control of its US-subsidiary, red-stars.com/financial, Inc., along with major financial data, publication and on/off-line investor relations operations in Russia (red-stars.com/financial OOO, the former Skate). Independent Media was granted an option to double its shareholding in red-stars.com within two years through a cash contribution. "We firmly believe in widening the media spectrum by increasing the importance of the web-channel, and we want to participate in the biggest East-Central European online marketing operation as a highly future-oriented asset within our overall media portfolio," said Derk Sauer, CEO and owner of Independent Media. "We also believe in the strategy and execution capabilities of red-stars' new management, having a clear vision for preparing the company for a major international IPO - possibly being the first ECE Internet business to go public." "Maintaining this strategic partnership with Independent Media in the form of an equity participation in red-stars.com will provide strong support and additional motivation to build a dominant online marketing business throughout all of Europe's emerging markets. Simultaneously, this provides us with greater flexibility to build our online IR and financial marketing business by gaining full control over our related assets, the red-stars.com/financial group in New York and Moscow," commented Thomas Streimelweger, founder and recently appointed CEO of red-stars.com data AG. In August 2001 red-stars.com data AG was closed caused by stop financing from its previous major shareholder Siemens and failure in negotiations with EBRD. In November 2001 red-stars.com announced renewal of its operations in Russia. The same month the German investment company Kremlin AG purchased a stack in the red-stars.com holding. Independent Media has a number of Internet projects. The St. Petersburg Times online version was one of the first online newspapers in the world. In 2001 eStart.ru, a portal based on Independent Media's print content, has collapsed.
Source: Netoscope (http://www.netoscope.ru)
On 10 January 2002, the Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Federal Law No. 1-FZ "On Electronic Digital Signature". On 14 January the Law was officially published and, as a result, it went into effect. Unfortunately, it seems that this new law will not create enough confidence to drastically increase the use of electronic documents in Russia. In fact, the impact of the Law on IT business and commerce in Russia would be far more significant if a draft Law on Electronic Trade was also adopted, since this draft law contains important provisions with respect to the use of electronic documents (including use as evidence in court), as well as, other provisions relating to transactions concluded over the Internet. Additionally, several practical limitations, which we have described below, will most likely serve as barriers to the value of the Law. The underlying concept of the Law establishes encryption as the only method whereby a valid (from the standpoint of Russian law) electronic digital signature may be created. The Law is drafted to intentionally omit other analogues of personal signatures and exclude the use of other technologies for electronic digital signature creation. Further, the Law limits the scope of use of electronic digital signatures to civil law transactions and transactions where electronic digital signatures are specifically permitted under other Russian legislation; as of today, such specific references only exist in the Russian Civil Code. Accordingly, an electronic digital signature can be used for any civil law contract (with a few exceptions specified below), but cannot be used for signing of any electronic documents submitted to the government authorities. Equally, it cannot be used for signing of any civil law documentation that will subsequently need state registration (or notarisation). Basic Provisions of the Law The Law defines an electronic digital signature as: (1) A part of an electronic document that is designated to protect the document from falsification; (2) A product of encryption using a secret key; and (3) The part of the document that allows for the authentication of the rightful holder of the secret key, as well as, a point of reference that can assist in detecting any distorted information contained in a document. A person may have a number of electronic signatures. An electronic signature is deemed equivalent to a handwritten signature if the following three conditions are complied with: (1) The certificate of the open key of the signature is valid at the time of the authentication or at the time of the signing of the document; (2) The signature owner's name and the secret key match and there is no evidence that the document has been distorted; and (3) The document signed with the electronic signature falls within the scope of the transaction(s) and the restrictions indicated in the certificate. When the abovementioned conditions are met, the electronic document will be deemed-by operation of law-to be legally signed by the individual. Thus, the transaction will have binding legal force. Certificates of Electronic Digital Signature and Certification Centres Certification of electronic digital signature should be issued in hard copy. Foreign certificates will be recognized in Russia, provided that they are on paper and duly certified (notarised and legalized or apostilled). Activity of the centres that are authorized to authenticate digital signatures and issue the certificates for open keys (the "Centres") will be subject to regulation by "an authorized federal executive body" which is to be selected (and dismissed) by the Government. It should be noted that the Law does not name the particular government body that will carry out this function. Further, the Law tends to be conservative with respect to the rights of the Centre to the detriment of the holders of certificates and the recipients of digitally signed documents. Use of Electronic Digital Signature In conclusion, taken the abovementioned points into account, the contents of a document signed on paper and stamped with a company seal may be considered legally equivalent to an electronic document if the content is converted into an electronic form and the e-document is electronically signed by an "authorized" company officer. However, under the Law, electronic digital signatures used in public domain (any information system open for use to anyone) must be created exclusively by means of software and hardware certified in Russia. Since certification in Russia can be a lengthy process that may require, among other things, that the software is de-compiled, many companies will not be able to reap the benefits of electronic digital signatures.
Source: Baker & McKenzie Legal Alert, 14 January 2002
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