It came as a shock to many observers when VimpelCom, one of Russia's largest telecommunications companies, publicly criticized the government's plans to legalize the interception of telephone and e-mail communications. VimpelCom sent a letter to the Communications and Press Ministry criticizing the plan as unconstitutional. But this type of espionage is not all that new. The principles governing that system were established and first implemented back in the 1990s. Every few years since then, the requirements placed upon Internet providers and phone companies have been updated in accordance with the latest technologies and the ever-growing appetite of Russia's intelligence agencies.
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