says British Foreign Secretary William Hague

The minister condemned the initiatives of “certain governments” to create laws to control the Internet. Haig meant Russia and China. The Kremlin, even without a legislative basis, has long been using its levers to interfere in the life of the Internet community, bloggers believe.

The UK has strongly condemned attempts by Russia and China to censor the Internet. At the International Conference on Cyberspace, which began yesterday in London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague criticized the initiative of “certain governments” to create laws to control the Internet. At the moment, only two countries have made such proposals - China and Russia.

Dividing the Internet into “zones” and opening criminal cases against bloggers is shameful, said William Hague.

“There is no idea more destructive than placing cyberspace under strict state control. The Internet must remain united and global, state borders, laws and taxes must not be allowed to be transferred there,” Haig is sure. “Otherwise we will stop the free flow of information and ideas.” which represents the main interest and value of modern cyberspace. A simple international set of rules on Internet behavior adopted by states may become the biggest mistake of the 21st century."

Haig’s statement was a response to the speech of the head of the Russian Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, Igor Shchegolev. At the same forum, a Russian official proposed to “immediately” develop an international document regulating state control on the Internet.

“The consequences of the illegal use of the latest information technologies, including for terrorist purposes, are comparable in scale to the damage from the use of “classical” weapons and even weapons of mass destruction,” said Shchegolev. “The issue of preparing an international set of rules of conduct in the global information space is acute and requires immediate and multilateral discussion. The goal of Russian initiatives is to prevent the use of cyber technologies against the security interests of states.”

Igor Shchegolev’s speech is an attempt by Russia to legitimize a long-existing practice, says blogger, leader of the opposition political movement “We” Roman Dobrokhotov.

“The Kremlin is doing practically the same thing that China has been doing for a long time. The authorities have all the necessary levers, and they are actively using these levers. For example, there is the SORM 2 system, which allows our intelligence services to read mail without special permission from the court, and so on. "The rather sharp reaction of Western colleagues is logical. If they hear from Russian and Chinese officials about restrictions on the Internet, then this is clearly against bloggers."

The point of view expressed by William Hague was supported by British Prime Minister David Cameron and US Vice President Joe Biden.

“A set of rules for online behavior could be the biggest mistake of the 21st century.”