MOSCOW: The Russian security service has proposed banning Skype, Hotmail and Gmail as their “uncontrolled use” could pose a security threat, a service official said during a government meeting on Friday.

The comments from the head of the service’s information and special communication centre Alexander Andreyechkin were disowned by the Kremlin but come amid mounting concern over state meddling in the Internet in Russia.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) is “increasingly concerned” by the mass use of these services, which use foreign-made encryption technology, Andreyechkin said, RIA Novosti agency reported.

“Uncontrolled usage of these services may lead to massive threat to Russia’s security,” he said at a meeting of the government’s communication and technology committee.

Control of Internet traffic through these services is done from servers outside Russia, and so they are often used by extremist organisations, Andreyechkin was reported as saying before the meeting continued without the press.

Deputy Minister of Communications Ilya Massukh later said that recommendations regarding regulation of mass usage of encryption technology will be given to the government by Oct 1.

The FSB would like to ban these services in Russia because “security authorities cannot access them,” Massukh was reported as saying.

Russian agencies quoted a Kremlin source later on Friday as saying that Andreyechkin’s statements are “his own opinion and don’t reflect the government’s decision regarding development of the Internet.”

“Andreyechkin overstepped his authorities and made hasty remarks about these popular services,” the source said, RIA Novosti reported. “State policy in the sphere of Internet technology is not set by security services.”

His comments came in the same week that the LiveJournal blogging site, hugely popular in Russia, fell victim to cyber-attack that bloggers blamed on the Russian security services.

President Dmitry Medvedev, who prides himself on his use of Twitter and also maintains a LiveJournal weblog, called the attack “outrageous and illegal”.—AFP