Russia is looking to emulate China for controlling internet in the country. It has been working for years to set up system for filtering internet content. However, the setup is still incomplete and the country is now collaborating with China to incorporate some aspects of its control systems into the Russian system. 

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According to The Guardian, high level officials from both countries are in touch for working out the details. The first meeting took place this April in Moscow. The team comprised Lu Wei, the head of China's state internet information office; Fang Binxing, dubbed as the father of the Great Firewall; and Igor Shchyogolev, President Vladimir Putin's assistant on internet issues and former minister of communications.

Russia is reportedly willing to obtain requisite technology from the mainland. "China remains our only serious 'ally,' including in the IT sector,"  an insider in the Russian information technology told The Guardian. "We are in fact actively switching to Chinese." 

Russia has implemented various new rules to manage the flow of internet content in the country. This summer, it introduced Yarovaya's law, which implores Russian telecom and ISPs to retain their users' data for the period of six months. They are also required to store metadata for three years.

Russia also recently blocked LinkedIn in the country as the company failed to comply with Russian directives requiring the domestic users' data to be stored in the servers located within the country. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have sworn to boost cooperation in areas such as internet censorship.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Russian telecom equipment manufacturer Bulat was in talks with Chinese telecom company Huawei. The negotiations were likely concerned with technologies related to servers and data storage.

TagsVladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Internet