How many Internet users are there in Russia?

The number of Russia’s registered Internet users totalled 3 million people at the end of 2000, while the entire Internet audience in Russia amounted to 7-8 million, a report of the Russian Public Centre of Internet Technologies presented at 3d international scientific conference on telecommunications states. In the meantime, the number of Internet users in the world approaches 300 million, and it is expected to reach 1 billion by 2005. According to the report cited by RBC, prospects for the development of the Internet in Russia mostly depend on potential clients’ capacity to buy new computers rather than on the development of access networks and capacities of telephone exchanges.