Russian Carnivore to Shut Down?

26 September 2000

Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 23:20:41 +0300
From: Maksim Otstavnov <maksim@otstavnov.com>
To: jya@pipeline.com
Subject: "Russian Carnivore" to shut down?

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"SORM" TO SHUTDOWN?

Mon, Sep. 25, 2000, Moscow. — The Supreme Court of Russia nullified one of the articles of the Ministry of Communication Order No. 130, this year. The infamous Order would have forced telecom/datacom operators to install surveillance equipment on their networks. Being deployed such a system (the so called "SORM", Russian acronym for System of Research Operative Measures, much similar to the FBI’s Carnivore) would have enabled the ex-KGB to exercise effective technological circumvention of current legislation on privacy. The existing provisions of the Russian Constitution and a number of Federal Acts stipulate the necessity of a court warrant not only for wiretapping but for any restriction of citizens’ and organizations’ communication privacy.

The plan of "SORM" implementation was outed in 1998 by Moscow Libertarium site (www.libertarium.ru) and the Computerra journal (www.computerra.ru) has come into the focus of public attention and criticism both domestically and abroad for two years and was regarded as one of sure signs of authoritarian trends in the country.

The appeal was filed by a St. Petersburg journalist Pavel Netupsky. He attempted to question all orders by the Ministry requesting operators’ assistance in conducting illegal surveillance actions.

However it so happened that the same day Leonid Reiman, the Federal Minister of Communications, signed an Order nullifying all acts of the Communication Ministry preceding Order No. 130.

Thus the court had to confine itself to nullifying Article 2.6 of the Order which read: "neither information on customers subject to research operative measures nor decisions warranting the legality of the above mentioned measures are not to be presented to operators".

Supreme Court Judge Yuri Redchenko ruled that "such provision would prevent operator from duely fulfilling the obligation to observe the privacy of the customers' communication with which the operator is entrusted by the Federal Law 'On Communication'".

However the Article 2.1 of the Order was not nullified. The article still forces operators to bye certain "prescribed" equipment and/or surveillance software which enters in contradiction with the Article 19 of the Federal Law "On Research Operative Activity" allocating budget funds for financing the activity.

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Two weeks ago a similar initiative by the ex-KGB was blocked in another ex-USSR country, Ukraine. Unlike in Russia, in Ukraine the ex-KGB tried to introduce a spying network by a presidential decree which was voted down by an overwhelming majority of Ukranian MPs.

Sources: Computerra weekly (www.computerra.ru), Moscow Libertarium (www.libertarium.ru), Human Rights Network (www.hro.org), Internet.ru (www.internet.ru), "Segodnya" newspaper (www.segodnya.ru), Lenta.ru (www.lenta.ru), private sources in the RF Ministry of Communication, RF Federal Security Service, and RF General Procurator’s Office.