Restricted Access Areas of the Russian Ministry of Defence

The IIFD experts met At the Russian page of official website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation an interesting link “Restricted Access Area”. The “area” appeared to be really unavailable, asking for login and password upon clicking. There was no additional information what data are hidden within this website section.

The experts filed to the Ministry an official request asking to clarify what was hidden in that “area” and how could a user obtain login and password for access. The reply explained that the ministry had decided to collect “e-reviews of Russian media materials on the Russian armed forces and political problems” available for citizens “in original sources”.

This hardly clarified why a collection of media materials should be hidden from the public. A second request was submitted.

The reply to it shows that military officials have good sense of humor. The Ministry recognizes that to form such a restricted-acces area at the website is not correct towards users, and thanks the IIFD for “insistence in seeking law violations” within the website functioning. The reply also says that “all necessary information” on the Ministry activities is published at its official website.

Today, the “Restricted Access Area” weblink is removed from the website.

We should remind that in the 2009 IIFD informational openness rating for federal executive government bodies, thwe Ministry fo Defence holds 56th position (from 80) with the rating of 25,93%. The ministry officials’ opinion what is “all necessary information” seems to differ significantly from that of our monitoring experts.