Federation Council's sovereignty commission expecting Google, Apple reps at its meeting

MOSCOW. Sept 15 (Interfax) - Head of the Federation Council's commission for the protection of state sovereignty Andrei Klimov hopes that representatives of Google and Apple, which have received relevant invitations, will attend the commission's meeting on Thursday.

"I, for my part, realizing that it is better to engage in direct dialogue, sent invitations to the administration of Google and the administration of Apple yesterday. We are ready to see both the heads of these companies and their official representatives, either via their personal attendance [at the meeting] at the Federation Council building in Moscow or by video link," Klimov told reporters on Wednesday.

The commission's meeting will take place in the run-up to the State Duma elections and will deal with attempts to interfere in this process.

"There are serious examples of actual violations of Russian legislation by global Internet companies, which are mostly based in the United States," he said.

"It was from this platform that I issued a warning to the Google company back in 2018, and then, to their credit, they on the 'day of silence' deleted content that is unlawful in accordance with Russian legislation. We do not know what will happen this time. That's why, since our commission's main task is prevention, we would like to somehow admonish them, including these American digital giants," Klimov said.

Hopefully, "these Internet companies will respect Russian laws, because they work in Russian territory and, by the way, make very good money," he said.

"We believe that such participation in this event will allow representatives of these companies, if they kindly agree to attend, to understand the essence of Russia's complaints. These complaints have been forward to them not by us alone, but they have also received materials to this effect from the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation," Klimov said.