MOSCOW, July 17 (RAPSI) -  Russia's federal communications agency Roskomnadzor will not issue a license for Skype voice and video calling services and will not regulate its operation in Russia, Kommersant reports.

A letter written by Deputy Head of the federal agency Oleg Ivanov to the MTS mobile network explains that the law on telecommunications covers only service providers in Russia. Skype is registered in Luxembourg and has no affiliates or representative offices in Russia.

However, even if the company had a Russian branch, it would not change matters greatly. Services such as those provided by Skype are not subject to a license, according to a document obtained by Vedomosti daily.

Ruslan Ibragimov, MTS Vice President on Corporate and Legal Issues, earlier requested that the Communications Ministry and the federal service for communications look into online communication services. He was concerned with the fact that these services compete head to head with telephone networks, while their activity is not regulated by laws.

Earlier this year, major cyber security and IT market players revealed that Russian security services are able to tap Skype conversations. Since its acquisition of Skype in May 2011, Microsoft has added a legitimate monitoring technology to Skype, says Maksim Emm, Executive Director of Peak Systems. Now any user can be switched to a special mode in which encryption keys will be generated on a server rather than the user's phone or computer. Access to the server allows Skype calls or conversations to be tapped. Microsoft has been providing this technology to security services across the world, including Russia.