MINSK, May 24-RIA Novosti. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a law that, in the event of threats to national security, gives the authorities the right to restrict the operation of telecommunications networks in the republic, the National Legal Internet Portal reported on Monday.
According to him, the national register of legal acts includes amendments to the law "On Telecommunications". This means that the document was signed by the head of state. Before that, they were adopted by both chambers of the Belarusian parliament.
As follows from the justification for the law, in particular, it provides that in order to prevent situations that pose a threat to national security, the State may take measures to restrict the functioning of telecommunications networks and their constituent means of telecommunications (reducing the time and volume of their use, changing the operating modes), suspend the functioning of telecommunications networks and their constituent means of telecommunications (temporarily stopping their operation).
The authority to manage the public telecommunications network is granted to the operational and analytical center under the President of Belarus. Failure by local operators to comply with the requirements to suspend or restrict the operation of networks and their telecommunications facilities will constitute a gross violation of the law.
The Law comes into force after its official publication.
After the presidential elections held in Belarus on August 9, in which Lukashenko won for the sixth time, gaining, according to the CEC, 80.1% of the vote, mass opposition protests began in the country, which were also suppressed by security forces using special means. The actions gradually changed their character to local and small-scale. On February 11, the KGB of Belarus said that the situation in the country has stabilized, the peak of the protests has passed, and their manifestations have almost disappeared.
In Belarus, against the background of unauthorized protests, the Internet was periodically restricted, mainly to prevent the gathering of protesters, but as the situation stabilized, state agencies stopped practicing this.
