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Russia has drawn up draft legislation aimed at stopping leaks of personal information from state agencies, a step that follows publication of details of Russians allegedly involved in clandestine intelligence operations abroad.
The bill, produced by Russia's communications ministry, bars unauthorised people from creating and publishing databases of personal data drawn from official sources, and fines anyone violating that rule.
It also requires that state agencies setting up systems for handling personal data consult with the Federal Security Service, Russia's main domestic intelligence agency.
The communications ministry did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Stronger military and energy ties between Russia and Turkey are reshaping the world, said participants at a forum in Turkey's capital Ankara on Thursday.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "laid the foundation to build a new world architecture" with the TurkStream natural gas project, retired Russian Gen. Aleksandr Vladimirov told the "Turkey-Russia Relations: Shaping the Future" forum.The TurkStream project is an export gas pipeline set to cross beneath the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey and extend to Turkey's borders with neighboring countries."Only through dialogue can the problems in the world be solved," Vladimirov added.Bulgaria reported as route choice for TurkStream 2 gasIlya Kramnik, a defense and security expert from the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), said that after 2015, military ties between Turkey and Russia began to see new developments.Pointing to the 2017 agreement for Turkey to buy Russian-made S-400 air defense systems, set to be delivered next year, Kramnik said: "There was no cooperation agreement of this dimension before."Kramnik underlined that Turkey's defense industry products have also gotten Russia’s attention.TurkStream's giant pipelaying vessel: Pioneering Spirit"Turkey has achieved great success in unmanned aerial vehicles," he said, adding that there may be cooperation between the two countries on this.Yusuf Alabarda, a retired Turkish officer and security expert, said military cooperation between Turkey and Russia has gained momentum, adding that "serious steps" have been taken in the Turkish defense industry in recent years.On Monday, the Turkish and Russian presidents attended a ceremony in Istanbul marking completion of a key section of the TurkStream pipeline.TurkStream is key step for Turkey as gas trading centerErdoğan calls Russia 'reliable' partner for Turkey
'Turkish-Russian cooperation reshaping world'
The bill, published late on Thursday, says it is in response to a 2017 instruction from President Vladimir Putin and makes no mention of the spate of leaks.
However, Russian authorities have been embarrassed by leaks about two men Britain alleges were Russian intelligence agents who used a nerve agent to poison former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Russia denies involvement.
The two men told Russian television they were innocent tourists who went to the English city of Salisbury, where Skripal was living, to view its cathedral.
But the Bellingcat investigative journalism website, drawing on leaked passport information, identified the two as officers with Russia's GRU military intelligence agency.
The number of Russian tourists visiting Turkey has hit a record high, the Russian envoy said Thursday.Aleksey Yerhov said: "Some 4.7 million Russian tourists visited Turkey last year and we expect the figure to reach 5.5 million this year."He was speaking at a forum on Turkey-Russia relations was held at the Yildirim Beyazit University in the Turkish capital Ankara.Yerhov said Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had met six time this year, in a sign of deepening of ties between the countries.Also bilateral trade had increased, he said.Noting the strategic importance of TurkStream, a gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey, and Akkuyu nuclear power plant projects, built by Russia in Turkey, he said the two countries will also gain from talks on Syria.Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin and several Russian and Turkish bureaucrats and academics attended the event.
Russian tourists to Turkey hit record high: envoy
In a separate case, a Russian accused in a U.S. indictment of conducting cyber attacks around the world was traced, via leaked official databases, to an address in Moscow that Washington says is a base for Russian military intelligence.
The legislation, comprising two draft laws and a draft government resolution, has been published for a 30-day period of public consultation, after which it will be submitted to parliament and the government for approval.
Russia has an active black market in illegal databases compiled using confidential information stolen from state-run registries. The data includes passport details, addresses, car registrations, flight manifests and even tax returns.
Releasing personal data in this way is already illegal under existing legislation, but Russian authorities have struggled to stamp out the practice. Many of the databases are openly available on the Internet.
Russia on Thursday said that the U.S. has been training the militants at its At Tanf military base in the southeastern Syria.Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow is concerned about the U.S. unwillingness to decide the problems, existing around "the occupied territory"."A large military base is deployed in the sovereign territory of a UN member state, in a strategically important area at the tri-border of Syria, Iraq and Jordan, near the route, connecting Baghdad and Damascus, which, according to numerous evidence, is preparing militants," she said.US placing observation posts in northern Syria: MattisAccording the datum published earlier by Anadolu Agency, some 7,700 square kilometers of the At Tanf region in the Syrian-Iraqi border are currently under U.S.-backed opposition control.In early September, the U.S.-led anti-Daesh coalition began war games at At Tanf garrison in what it said are exercises aimed at honing "warfighting skills for counterterrorism operations".Despite the stated "counterterrorism" aim of the exercises, CNN reported they are actually a direct response to Russian military threats.Moscow reportedly sent a written note to the U.S. warning that it would carry out "precision strikes" on militants around the At Tanf area despite a roughly 55-kilometer (34-mile) de-confliction zone around the base.
Russia: US uses base in Syria for militant training