[2186] Constitution of the Russian Federation, available at http://www.russianembassy.org/RUSSIA/CONSTIT (English). The Constitution of the Russian Federation was adopted by national voting on December 12, 1993. The previous Constitution (which was adopted in 1977 by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR) ensured weaker privacy guarantees.
[2187] Russian Federation Federal Law No. 24-FZ, Law of the Russian Federation on Information, Informatization and Information Protection, 25th January 1995. http://www.datenschutz-berlin.de/gesetze/internat/fen.htm (extracts).
[2188] Id. Art.11.
[2189] Tax Code, Art. 84, Part 1.
[2190] Labor Code, Articles 85-90. See also "Improved Russian Labor Code Entered Into Force," Vol. 8, No. 2, International Law Update, February 2002.
[2191] Law "On banks and banking activity," Principles of legislation of the Russian Federation with regard to citizens' health protection, Family Code, Tax Code, etc.
[2192] Human Rights Network, Privacy in the Russian Internet, a survey (Human Rights Publishers, 2003), available at http://www.hro.org/docs/reps/privacy/2002/eng/.
[2193] Sabrina Tavernise, "Personal Data Is Pirated From Russian Phone Files," New York Times, January 23, 2003, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/23/business/worldbusiness/23DATA.html?ex=1054440000&en=fee2785ba6eafbb5&ei=5070.
[2194] The Chamber mostly tried to settle conflicts in the media community by establishing a mechanism of self-regulation. Its status was unclear because the Chamber was officially attached to the president's administration (executive branch) while playing the role of a court (judicial branch). The establishment of such an institution isarguably against the basic principle of the division of powers between the executive, the legislative, and the judicial branches). However, since the Chamber's decisions were not binding, no one opposed its establishment.
[2195] The Chamber was closed by the presidential Decree No. 1031 of June 3, 2000.
[2196] Russian Federation Federal Law "On communication" No. 15-FZ. Adopted by the State Duma on January 20, 1995. Article 32.
[2197] The Federal Law No. 144-FZ of August 12, 1995.
[2198] The Federal Law No. 40-FZ of April 3, 1995.
[2199] Article 5 of the Federal Law "On operational investigations" of August 12, 1995 (the Federal Law No. 144-FZ of 1995)
[2200] "Police Get Window Of Access To E-mail," The Moscow Times, January 13, 2000.
[2201] This amendment has been introduced by the Federal Law No.26-FZ of March 20, 2001.
[2202] The "protocol" is an official paper, a form that must be completed and signed to certify that the data was deleted.
[2203] "Russia Prepares To Police Internet," The Moscow Times, July 29, 1998. More information in English and Russian is available from the Moscow Libertarium Forum http://www.libertarium.ru/libertarium/sorm/.
[2204] In Russia a license is necessary for providing Internet services. ISPs have to meet license terms and conditions including cooperation with secret services.
[2205] "Supreme Court Rules Phone-Tapping Clause in Decree to be Illegal," BBC World Monitoring, September 28, 2000.
[2206] Alexander Kostinsky and Sergei Smirnov, "Hello! The Parliament is listening!," Internet.ru, May 19, 2000, available at http://www.internet.ru/articles/n_r9z1.esp.
[2207] Human Rights Network, Privacy in the Russian Internet, a survey (Human Rights Publishers, 2003), available at http://www.hro.org/docs/reps/privacy/2002/eng/.
[2208] The Law "On counteraction extremist activity" No. 114-FZ of July 25, 2002. See also Declan McCullagh, "Russia poised to restrict Net activities," Cnet, June 24, 2002, available at http://news.com.com/2100-1023-938810.html.
[2209] On October 23, 2002, a group of Chechen terrorists captured about 800 hostages in one of Moscow theaters. Their demand to the Russian government was to withdraw their troops from the territory of Chechnya. The terrorist attack ended up with the death of all terrorists and 129 of the hostages. Since 1999 a war in Chechnya opposed the Russian federal government and Chechen rebels.
[2210] Russian government considers the war in Chechnya to be an "counter-terrorist" operation.
[2211] Criminal Code, Article 137.
[2212] Id. Article 138.
[2213] Id. Article 139.
[2214] Id. Article 272.
[2215] Id. Article 272, Part 2.
[2216] Due to inflation, this unit (called "MROT") is regularly reviewed and changed by the State Duma. For the period of summer/fall 2003, 800 MROT is about USD10,000.
[2217] Civil Code, Article 150, Part 2.
[2218] Id. Article 151.
[2219] Administrative Code, Article 13.11.
[2220] Id. Article 13.14.
[2221] Id. Article 5.39.
[2222] United Nations Human Rights Committee, Comments on Russian Federation, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/79/Add.54 (1995), available at http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/uncom.nsf/0/9172bc5146972b6dc125663c00343b49?OpenDocument.
[2223] The law contains no clear definition of what "personal data" are and how they are to be processed; instead the law refers to federal law which should contain everything but has not been adopted in Russia by now
[2224] Human Rights Network, Privacy in the Russian Internet, a survey (Human Rights Publishers, 2003), available at http://www.hro.org/docs/reps/privacy/2002/eng/.
[2225] Id.
[2226] E.g., see Chris Riley, "Moscow's heart of darkness," NBC news, available at http://www.msnbc.com/news/183261.asp?cp1=1#BODY.
[2227] Mayakinfo.ru, available at http://www.mayakinfo.ru/news.asp?msg=676; "Electronic passports are coming," Computerworld Ukraine, available at http://www.cs.comizdat.com/3/4/5/2925/2951/.
[2228] Signed 28/02/96, Ratified 05/05/98, Entered into force 05/05/98 http://conventions.coe.int/.
[2229] Signed November 8, 2001, available at http://conventions.coe.int/.
[2230] http://conventions.coe.int/.
[2231] Human Rights Network, Privacy in the Russian Internet, a survey (Human Rights Publishers, 2003), available at http://www.hro.org/docs/reps/privacy/2002/eng/.