Owners of Foreign Pornographic Web-sites Attach Their Material to Russia

'Owners of foreign pornographic internet materials are 'tethering' web-sites to Russia to confuse the world community and Interpol,' announced Head of the Moscow High Technology Crime Department Dmitri Chepchugov. In order to do this, he said, pornographers are using such software solutions as 'Redirect' and 'Anonymising'. These schemes are 'giving the world community a false view of Russia as the centre of child porn because there is no appropriate Russian legislation in this area.'

The department head said that in reality Russian child porn 'only makes up about 1% of the total world porn market.' He also emphasised that Moscow investigators, in carrying out Interpol's demands, have found that 70% of the pornographic material examined was located in other countries, not Russia.

At the same time, Mr Chepchugov admitted that Russia does not have the necessary legislation to combat pornography, including child pornography. 'In particular, while the Russian criminal code makes clear that the illegal spread of pornography is an offence, this also seems to suggest that there may be a legal way of spreading pornography, which is not mentioned at all in the criminal code,' he said. Furthermore, Mr Chepchugov believes that users of pornographic products should also bear some responsibility.

Over recent months the Moscow department has instigated 14 criminal cases in connection with the spread of pornography on the internet, after investigating about 3000 web-sites. Other criminal cases are being instigated in accordance with articles 241 (the organization and maintenance of brothels for prostitution) and 242( the illegal spreading of pornographic materials or products) of the Russian criminal code.