Millions Made From Censorship. How Much the People Building Russia’s Internet Blocking System Earn

Millions Made From Censorship. How Much the People Building Russia’s Internet Blocking System Earn

Restrictions on the Russian internet are lobbied for by the security services, but the censorship machine is maintained day to day by ordinary officials and administrators: non-public people with biographies, salaries, and lifestyles typical of Moscow civil servants.

“Verstka” obtained access to data on the salaries of officials at the Ministry of Digital Development and Roskomnadzor, as well as employees of companies that maintain the internet censorship infrastructure. Here is what we found:

🟪Minister of Digital Development Maksut Shadaev earns about 1.2 million rubles a month. Including bonuses, his annual income reaches about 20 million rubles. Roskomnadzor chief Andrei Lipov’s salary is substantially lower, at about 385,000 rubles a month. At the same time, the Lipov family owns property worth at least 600 million rubles.

🟪Heads of departments at the Ministry of Digital Development and Roskomnadzor receive from 250,000 to 500,000 rubles a month. Mid-level managers get up to 200,000. The salaries of many rank-and-file employees do not exceed 100,000 rubles.

🟪Government contractors earn significantly more. Aleksei Shelobkov, head of X Holding, whose company supplies equipment for filtering internet traffic, receives about 2.6 million rubles a month. Former FSB officers Andrei Fetisov and Boris Korolyov, who are involved in this market, have comparable incomes.

🟪The main money is concentrated among the beneficiaries of the ecosystem that profits from pushing out independent platforms: VK CEO Vladimir Kiriyenko and his deputy Stepan Kovalchuk receive millions of rubles a month.

Read on the “Verstka” website about who else restricts the internet in Russia (with VPN):

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Verstka

“Ordinary Office Work”: How Internet Censorship Works in Russia

The restrictions are lobbied for by the security services, but the system of bans is maintained by ordinary officials and administrators