MOSCOW, May 25 (RAPSI) – Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has supported a bill regulating the work of messaging services and prohibiting anonymous use of online messengers, RIA Novosti reported Thursday citing the regulator’s head Alexander Zharov.

If the mode of communication is confidential and unsupervised, it will be obviously used by terrorists and extremists, the agency quoted Zharov as having said. That’s why the watchdog fully supports such approach to regulation of all communication means including messengers.

However, the control must not touch people’s chats, Zharov stressed. The mere fact of communication should be recorded, according to the head of Roskomnadzor.

The bill submitted to the State Duma by a group of lawmakers on May 24 obliges organizers of instant messaging to maintain message transmission only of Internet users identified in accordance with a procedure established by Russia’s government and prohibits providers from working with unidentified users.

Moreover, the draft law proposes to identify users with the aid of their cell phone numbers basing on the agreement for identification concluded between organizers of instant messaging and communications providers.

Failure to abide by the regulations would result in fines of up to 1 million rubles ($17,800 at the current exchange rate). Messengers would also face blocking in Russia for failure to comply with requirements to restrict anonymous messaging.