Russia forbids its soldiers to use smartphones and social networks | Chronic

The lower house of the Russian parliament approved a bill banning the use of smartphones and social networks to soldiers on duty, a national security measure aimed at protecting secret military intelligence from foreign intelligence services.

The text approved by 400 votes (out of 450) on Tuesday forbids soldiers from publishing personal information on the Internet – such as photos, videos and geolocation data – on their military units and deployments, the agency reported. BBC press release Wednesday.

Once the project is approved by the upper house, soldiers will no longer be allowed to carry smartphones or other devices that can connect to the Internet, although they may use older mobile phones.

Russian officials quoted by the newspaper The Guardian They claimed that the aim of the measure was to protect secret military information, while the text voted referred to episodes of the recent Russian military campaign in Syria.

According to the morning English newspaper, Russian soldiers often post pictures and details of their services on social networks. Vkontakte and Odnoklbadniki, as a way to keep in touch with your fellow soldiers.

But these data have made it possible to track the activities of Russian forces fighting in secret in Ukraine (as in the south-east region, where Russia claimed to have no troops) and in Syria, sometimes in real time.

An badysis conducted by the Bellingcat research site has tracked the movement of soldiers carrying a ground-to-air missile system, allegedly related to the collapse of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which crashed in 2014 with 283 pbadengers and 15 crew members on board. Ukrainian flag of Donetsk.

In addition, in a video titled "Selfie Soldiers" Vice News was able to locate a Russian soldier from Buryatia, in central Russia, who had posted photos of eastern Ukraine during the conflict.

Thanks to social media data, it was also possible to follow the members of the Russian armed forces in Syria, sometimes several weeks before the country's participation in the country's long civil war was made public.