Russia's Digital Development Ministry has drafted proposals to place the infrastructure and customer contracts of telecom operators that cease operations under the temporary management of other companies. Izvestia reported on the proposed amendments to the Communications Law on October 23 after examining the document. The initiative and the ministry's position were also described by The Moscow Times' Russian edition.
Under the proposed mechanism, a closed provider's networks and customer services could be transferred temporarily to other operators. The intention is to preserve access to communications and internet services without requiring each customer to sign a new contract first.
The transfer of obligations and infrastructure, however, raises questions about network ownership, competition between operators and the protection of customer data. The precise responsibilities of temporary managers and procedures for transferring contracts would need to be defined in law if the proposal is adopted.
At the time of reporting, these were draft proposals, not a law already authorizing the state to transfer any network automatically to a chosen company. Details are known from media reports; the original draft could not be reviewed in full.