On the 4^th of July (!), the lower house of the Russian parliament (the State Duma), approved by 325 votes against 65 a bill obliging foreign Internet companies to store Russian citizens’ personal data on servers within the Russian Federation.

1. When will this new law come into action?
The law, signed the 22th of July also by the President Vladimir Putin and still awaiting the approval of the upper house, the Federation Council would come into force Sept. 1, 2016 giving both foreign and domestic internet companies enough time to create data-storage facilities in Russia.
2. To whom will this law apply to?
The law will apply to social networking, messaging services (e-mail), foreign search engines (e.g. Google) and any company that stores data from (or about) a Russian citizen (online booking, social networks, procurement Services, consulates of foreign embassies, VPN). They will be required to “ensure registration, systematization, accumulation, storage, updating and retrieval of personal data” of Russian citizens via a server built and approved by the government. So, in order to continue to operate in Russia, they will be required to transfer some of their servers within the country. (suite…)