The Federation Council is outraged: the United States is listening to Russian negotiations amid coronavirus
At a meeting of the Federation Council, Senator Dmitry Shatokhin reproached the Russian government for using American developments for video communication during quarantine, while the announced import substitution has not been implemented.
“I’ve been worried about this question for two weeks - what kind of communication system do we use and apply now, in this difficult time. Our children - I watched my son study - use the Skype program. Next, our fellow journalists take (comments, - author.), I see that Russia 24 uses Skype, our remote work in the committee uses Skype Business. Skype is owned by Microsoft and is headquartered in Washington. In fact, now we have the whole country, on the one hand, in our sight, and, on the other hand, we support a foreign manufacturer.
We managed to create our own national payment system, but when will we think about a national communication system? On the one hand, we seem to have squeezed our own people - the same Telegram has been squeezed a little, to put it mildly, but at the same time, now the whole country is using a system that is being formed entirely in another country,” Shatokhin said.
Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications Oleg Ivanov decided to answer in official language.
“As for the communication system specifically, the public communication system is under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. And, here, software, you are absolutely right about this, indeed, often, which all citizens use, actually belong to foreign countries, and now our leading companies are actively developing products and popularizing them. For example, our domestic messenger, which is no worse than others, is gaining popularity and, for example, the Ministry of Communications has completely switched to domestic messengers. I think that in the future the popularization of our services will also proceed at the right pace, and we will gradually switch to our domestic resources,” Ivanov said.
He was criticized by the Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Oleg Anatolyevich, excuse me, but when did you manage to become such a formal bureaucrat? It seems like you are not from this system. “It is being developed and popularized” - you tell me, colleague Shatukhin asked a very specific question - when will a domestic communication system be developed and operational so that we use not Skype, but a domestic one? Answer this question. What is being developed, we have been hearing this for the last ten years. Software products are being developed - we have been hearing for the last ten years and so on. When will we finally do it? – Matvienko was amazed.
“There are systems, unfortunately, they do not enjoy the same popularity as those means that...,” answered Ivanov.
- Why? What, we are not patriots? So they are ineffective? So they are not perfect? Why aren't they popular? – Matvienko did not back down.
“Unfortunately, it has traditionally happened that the population uses those resources that appeared earlier. Now we really need to take all measures, and here I absolutely agree with you, so that our domestic resources are more popular,” Ivanov again answered evasively.
– Why haven’t government agencies switched to the domestic system? There is no need for popularization here; there are authorities for this. Why can’t government agencies use it if you claim that we have good, effective domestic communications? – continued Matvienko
“Government agencies use it, but probably not to the required extent,” Ivanov hesitated.
His answer did not suit Matvienko, who gave him a bad mark and urged him to prepare better:
“Your answer is not accepted. This is your first time with us, in my opinion, you get a “D” today. Take your homework, prepare, and I ask you to separately invite the Ministry of Communications and get substantive answers to the question asked by colleague Shatukhin.”
After this, Senator Vyacheslav Timchenko demanded that Ivanov name the messenger that is used in his department: “Please name the name of the domestic messenger, which you say is not used. Call the senators so they know so they can take part in popularization.”
“Everyone at the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications uses Tam-Tam, Mail.ru, please,” said Ivanov.
His words caused laughter in the Federation Council hall. “I think that except for you in this room for the first time, well, maybe, “Mail.ru” was heard, except for you, no one in this room knows this. Consider that with one speech you received 170 popularizers, but this is not enough,” Matvienko concluded.
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