MOSCOW – Modern states should not restrict internet freedoms, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin said yesterday, apparently trying to dispel concerns that the government might crack down on dissent ahead of elections.
Mr Putin, a longtime Soviet KGB officer who is considering returning to the presidency in the March 2012 election, made clear that the government had the means to limit internet freedoms but suggested it would be morally wrong to do so. “One can always impose control, but the question is whether the state has the right to interfere,” Mr Putin told his audience of secondary school pupils. –(Reuters)
