Federal Law on Information,
Informatization, and the
Protection of Information
No. 24-FZ
Enacted By the State Duma
25 January 1995
Signed By the President of the Russian Federation
20 February 1995
Chapter 1. General Principles
Article 1. Sphere of Action of This Federal Law
1. This Federal Law regulates relations that arise during
the:
formation and use of information resources on the basis
of
the creation, collection, accumulation, storage, search, and
dissemination and presentation to the consumer of documented
information;
the creation and use of information technologies and
their
support means;
the protection of the information and the rights of the
subjects participating in the information processes and
informatization.
2. This Federal Law does not affect the regulations that are
regulated by Russian Federation Law "Copyright and Related
Rights."
Article 2. Terms Used in This Federal Law and Their
Definitions
The following concepts are used in this Federal Law:
information [informatsiya] is information
[svedeniya] concerning individuals, objects, facts,
events, phenomena, and processes, irrespective of the form in
which that information is presented;
informatization [informatizatsiya] is the
organizational socioeconomic and scientific-technical process of
creating the optimal conditions for satisfying the information
needs and implementing the rights of citizens, agencies of state
authority, agencies of local self-government, organizations, and
public associations on the basis of the formation and use of
information resources;
documented information (document) is information that
has
been recorded on a material carrier, with the data that makes it
possible to identify it;
information processes are the processes of collecting,
processing, accumulating, storing, searching, and disseminating
information;
an information system is the systematically organized
totality of the documents (document files [massif]
and information technologies, including those with the use of
computer and communications technology, that implement the
information processes;
information resources are individual documents and
individual document files, and documents and document files in
information systems (libraries, archives, collections, data
banks, and other information systems);
information about citizens (personal data) is information
about the facts, events, and circumstances of a citizen's life
which make it possible to identify him as an individual;
confidential information is documented information, the
access to which is limited in conformity with Russian Federation
legislation;
support means for automated information systems and their
technologies are the software and technical, linguistic, legal,
and organizational means (programs for electronic computers;
computed technology and communications means; dictionaries,
thesauruses, and classifiers; instructional and methodological
guides; statutes, rules, job guidelines; schemes and their
descriptions; and other operational and accompanying documents)
that are used or being created during the planning of
information systems and that support their operation;
the owner of information
resources, information systems, and technologies and means for
supporting them is the subject who, in complete volume,
implements the powers of possession, use, and disposal of those
objects;
the possessor of information
resources, information systems, and technologies and their
support means, is the subject who carries out the possession and
use of those objects and who implements the powers of disposal
within the legally established limits;
the user of the information is the subject who
requests the services of the information system or of an
intermediary in order to obtain the information that he
requires, and who uses that information.
Article 3. The State's Obligations in the Sphere of
Forming Information Resources and Informatization
1. State Policy in the sphere of forming information
resources and informatization is aimed at creating the
conditions for the effective and efficient informational support
in deciding strategic and operational tasks in the social and
economic development of the Russian Federation.
2. The basic areas of state policy in the informatization
sphere are:
the guaranteeing of the conditions for developing and
protecting all forms of ownership of information resources;
the formation and protection of state information
resources;
the creation and development of federal and regional
information systems and networks; the guaranteeing of their
compatibility and interaction in the single information space of
the Russian Federation;
the creation of conditions for the efficient and
effective
information support of citizens, agencies of state authority,
agencies of local self-government, organizations, and public
associations on the basis of the state information resources;
the guaranteeing of national security in the
informatization sphere, as well as the guaranteeing of the
implementation of the rights of citizens and organizations under
informatization conditions;
the promotion of the formation of a market of information
resources, services, information systems, technologies, and
their support means;
the formation and carrying out of a single
scientific-technical and industrial policy in the
informatization sphere, with a consideration of the present-day
world level of development of information technologies;
the support of informatization projects and programs;
the creation and improvement of a system for attracting
investments and the mechanism for encouraging the development
and implementation of informatization projects;
the development of legislation in the sphere of
information processes, informatization, and the protection of
information.
Chapter 2. Information Resources
Article 4. Principles of the Legal System Governing the
Information Resources
1. Information resources are the objects of relations among
individuals, legal entities, and the state; they constitute
Russia's information resources and are protected by law,
together with other resources.
2. The legal system governing information resources is
determined by norms that establish:
the procedure for documenting the information;
the right of to own individual documents and individual
document files, and documents and document files in the
information systems;
the category of information with regard to the level of
access to it;
the procedure for the legal protection of the
information.
Article 5. Documenting of Information
1. The documenting of information is a mandatory condition
for including information in information resources. The
documenting of information is carried out in the procedure
established by agencies of state authority that are responsible
for organizing business correspondence and standardizing
documents and files of them, and for the security of the Russian
Federation.
2. A document that has been received from an automated
information system takes on legal force after that document has
been signed by an official in the procedure established by the
legislation of the Russian Federation.
3. The legal force of a document that is being stored,
processed, or transmitted with the aid of automated information
and telecommunications systems can be confirmed by an
electronically enciphered signature.
The legal force of an electronically enciphered signature is
recognized if the automated information system contains software
and technical means that guarantee the identification of the
signature and if the established rules for using them are
observed.
4. The right to certify the identity of an electronically
enciphered signature is carried out on the basis of a license.
The procedure for issuing licenses is defined by legislation of
the Russian Federation.
Article 6. Information Resources As an Element in the
Makeup of Property and As an Object of the Ownership Right
1. Information resources can be state or nonstate, and as an
element of the composition of property are within the ownership
of citizens, agencies of state authority, agencies of local
self-government, organizations, and public associations. The
relations with respect to the right of ownership of information
resources are regulated by the civil legislation of the Russian
Federation.
2. Individuals and legal entities are the owners of those
documents and document files that were created at the expense of
their own funds, were acquired by them on a legal basis, or were
received by means of a donation or inheritance.
3. The Russian Foundation and the subjects of the Russian
Federation are owners of the information systems that are
created, acquired, and accumulated at the expense of funds from
the federal budget and the budgets of the subjects of the
Russian Federation, as well as those obtained by other legally
established methods.
The state has the right to redeem documented information
from
individuals and legal entities in the event that that
information is put into the category of a state secret.
The owner of information resources containing information
that has been put into the category of a state secret has the
right to dispose of that property only with the authorization of
the appropriate agencies of state authority.
4. Subjects that submit documented information in a
mandatory
procedure to agencies of state authority or organizations do not
lose their rights to those documents or the use of the
information contained in them. The documented information that
is submitted in a mandatory procedure to agencies of state
authority or to organizations by legal entities, irrespective of
their legal-organizational forms or forms of ownership, or by
citizens on the basis of Article 8 of this Federal Law, forms
information resources that is in the joint possession of the
state and the subjects that submit that information.
5. The information resources that are owned by organizations
are included as part of their property in conformity with the
civil legislation of the Russian Federation.
The information resources that are owned by the state are
within the jurisdiction of the agencies of state authority and
organizations in conformity with their competency, and are
subject to record-keeping and protection as part of state
property.
6. Information resources can be a commodity, except for
those
instances that are stipulated by legislation of the Russian
Federation.
7. The owner of information resources enjoys all the rights
stipulated by the legislation of the Russian Federation,
including the right:
to appoint a person to carry out the housekeeping
management of the information resources or the operational
management of them;
to establish, within the limits of his competency, a
system and rules for processing and protecting the information
resources and the access to them;
to define the conditions for disposing of the documents
when they are being copied and disseminated.
8. The right to own the means for processing information
does
not create the right to own the information resources belonging
to other owners. Documents being processed in the procedure of
offering services and under conditions of joint use of those
processing means belong to their possessor. The ownership and
conditions governing the use of the derivative output that is
created in this instance are regulated by a contract.
Article 7. State Information Resources
1. The state information resources of the Russian Federation
are formed in conformity with jurisdictional spheres as:
federal information resources;
information resources that are under the joint
jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and the subjects of the
Russian Federation (hereinunder referred to as
joint-jurisdiction information resources);
information resources of subjects of the Russian
Federation.
2. The formation of state information resources in
conformity
with paragraph 1 of Article 8 of this Federal Law is carried out
by citizens, agencies of state authority, agencies of local
self-government, organizations, and public associations.
Federal agencies of state authority and agencies of state
authority of the subjects of the Russian Federation form state
information resources that are under their jurisdiction, and
guarantee their use in conformity with the established
competency.
3. The activity of agencies of state authority and
organizations in forming federal information resources,
joint-jurisdiction information resources, and the information
resources of subjects of the Russian Federation is financed from
the federal budget and the budgets of the subjects of the
Russian Federation, as an expense item "Information"
("Information Support").
4. Organizations that specialize in forming federal
information resources and/or joint-jurisdiction information
resources on a contract basis are obliged to obtain a license
for that type of activity at agencies of state authority. The
licensing procedure is defined by legislation of the Russian
Federation.
Article 8. Mandatory Submittal of Documented Information
In Order to Form State Information Resources
1. Citizens, agencies of state authority, agencies of local
self-government, organizations, and public association are
required to submit documented information to the agencies and
organizations that are responsible for the formation and use of
state information resources.
Lists of the documented information that is to be submitted
in a mandatory procedure and lists of the agencies and
organizations that are responsible for collecting and processing
federal information resources are approved by the Russian
Federation Government.
2. The procedure and conditions for the mandatory submittal
of documented information are made known to citizens and
organizations.
The procedure for the mandatory submittal (receipt) of
information that has been put into the category of a state
secret, and of confidential information, is established and
carried out in conformity with the legislation concerning those
categories of information.
3. When registering legal entities, the registration
agencies
provide them with lists of the documents to be submitted in a
mandatory procedure and with the addresses to which they are to
be submitted. The list of documented information that is to be
submitted in a mandatory procedure is attached to the charter of
each legal entity (statute concerning it).
Failure by the registration agencies to provide the legal
entities being registered with a list of the documents to be
submitted in a mandatory procedure, together with the addresses
to which they are to be submitted, is not justification for
refusal to register. The officials at the registration agencies
who are guilty of failure to provide the legal entities being
registered with lists of the documents to be submitted in a
mandatory procedure, together with the addresses to which they
are to be submitted, are brought to disciplinary responsibility,
up to and including dismissal.
4. Documents belonging to individuals or legal entities can
be included, if the owner desires, as part of the state
information resources according to the rules established for
including the documents in the appropriate information systems.
Article 9. Putting Information Resources in the Category
of All-Russian National Property
1. Individual objects in the federal information resources
can be declared to be all-Russian national property.
2. The putting of special objects in the federal information
resources in the category of all-Russian national property and
the definition of the legal conditions that pertain to them are
established by federal law.
Article 10. Information Resources By Access Categories
1. The state information resources of the Russian Federation
are open and accessible to everyone. Documented information that
has been legally put into the category of limited access
constitutes an exception.
3. Documented information with limited access, with regard
to
the legal conditions that pertain to it, is subdivided into
information that has been put into the category of a state
secret, and confidential information.
3. It is forbidden to put the following into the category of
limited access:
legislative and other normative acts that establish the
legal status of agencies of state authority, agencies of local
self-government, organizations, and public associations, as well
as the citizens' rights, freedoms, and obligations, and the
procedure for implementing them;
documents containing information concerning emergency
situation, ecological, meteorological, demographic,
sanitation-and-epidemiological, or other information that is
necessary to guarantee the safe functioning of inhabited points
and production sites, and the safety of citizens and the
population as a whole;
documents containing information about the activity of
agencies of state authority and agencies of local
self-government, about the use of budgetary funds and other
state and local resources, about the state of the economy and
the population's needs, with the exception of information that
has been put into the category of a state secret;
documents being accumulated in the open collections of
libraries and archives, in the information systems of agencies
of state authority, agencies of local self-government, public
associations, and organizations, which are of public interest or
are necessary for implement the citizens' rights, freedoms, and
obligations.
4. The putting of information into the category of a state
secret is carried out in conformity with RF Law "State Secret."
5. The putting of information into the category of
confidential information is carried out in the procedure
established by RF legislation, with the exception of instances
stipulated by Article 11 of this Federal Law.
Article 11. Information Concerning Citizens (Personal
Data
1. Lists of personal data to be included as part of federal
information resources, joint-jurisdiction information resources,
and the information resources of subjects of the Russian
Federation, the information resources of local self-government,
as well as that which is received and collected by nonstate
organizations, must be consolidated at the level of federal law.
Personal data is included in the category of confidential
information.
It is forbidden to collect, store, use, or disseminate
information concerning private life, or any information that
violates a personal secret, a family secret, a correspondence
secret, telephone conversations, or postal, telegraphic, or
other communications of an individual without his consent, other
than on the basis of a court decision.
2. Personal data cannot be used for purposes of causing any
property or psychological harm to citizens, or for purposes of
hindering the implementation of the rights and freedoms of
citizens of the Russian Federation. Limitation of the rights of
citizens of the Russian Federation on the basis of the use of
information concerning their social origin, or their racial,
national, linguistic, religious, or party affiliation, is
prohibited and is punished in accordance with the legislation.
3. Legal entities and individuals possessing, in conformity
with their powers, information concerning citizens, or that
receive and use it, bear the responsibility in conformity with
RF legislation for violating the conditions pertaining to the
protection, processing, and procedure for using that information.
4. Mandatory licensing is required for the activities of
nonstate organizations and private individuals that are linked
with the processing of personal data and the submittal of that
data to customers. The licensing procedure is defined by RF
legislation.
5. The impropriety of the activities of agencies of state
authority and agencies in the collection of personal data can be
established in a court procedure upon the request of subjects
operating on the basis of Articles 14 and 15 of this Federal Law
and the legislation concerning personal data.
Chapter 3. The Use of Information Resources
Article 12. Implementation of the Right to Access to
Information in the Information Resources
1. Users -- citizens, agencies of state authority, agencies
of local self-government, organizations,, and public
associations --possess equal rights to access to state
information resources and are not required to substantiate to
the possessors of those resources the need to obtain the
information that they are requesting. Information with limited
access constitutes an exception.
The access of individuals and legal entities to state
information resources is the basis for carrying out public
monitoring of the activities of the agencies of state authority,
the agencies of local self-government, public, political, and
other organizations, as well as the monitoring of the state of
the economy, ecology, and other spheres of public life.
2. Possessors of information resources provide the users
(consumers) with information from the information resources on
the basis of legislation, the charters of the indicated agencies
and organizations, the statutes governing them, as well as
contracts for information-support services.
Information obtained on a legal basis from state information
resources by citizens and organizations can be used by them to
create derivative information for purposes of its commercial
dissemination, with mandatory referencing of the source of the
information.
In this instance, the result of the labor and funds that
have
been invested to create the derivative information is the source
of profit, rather than the initial information that was obtained
from the state resources.
3. The procedure by which the customer obtains information
(an indication of the place, time, responsible officials,
necessary procedures) is defined by the owner or possessor of
the information resources, with the observance of the
requirements established by this Federal Law.
Lists of information and information-support services and
information about the procedure and conditions of access to the
information resources are offered free of charge to the users by
the possessors of information resources and information systems.
4. Agencies of state authority and organizations responsible
for the formation and use of information resources provide
conditions for the time-responsive and complete providing to the
user of documented information in conformity with the
requirements established by the charters (statutes) of those
agencies and organizations.
5. The procedure for accumulating and processing documented
information with limited access, the rules for protecting it,
and the procedure for access to it are defined by the agencies
of state authority that are responsible for the definite type
and files of information, in conformity with their competency or
directly by its owner in conformity with legislation.
Article 13. Guarantees of the Providing of Information
1. Agencies of state authority and agencies of local
self-government create resources that are accessible for
everyone on questions of the activities of those agencies and
their subordinate organizations, and also, within the limits of
their competency, carry out the mass informational support of
the users with regard to questions of citizens' rights,
freedoms, and obligations, their safety, and other questions
that are of public interest.
2. Refusal to provide access to the information resources
that are stipulated in paragraph 1 of this article can be
appealed in court.
3. The Committee on Informatization Policy, under the
President of the Russian Federation, organizes the registration
of all the information resources and information systems, and
the publication of information concerning them in order to
guarantee the citizens' right to access to information.
4. The list of information services offered to users from
state information resources free of charge, or in exchange for
payment that does not completely compensate the expenses for the
services, is established by the RF Government.
The expenses for these services are compensated from the
funds in the federal budget and the budgets of subjects of the
Russian Federation.
Article 14. Access of Citizens and Organizations to
Information About Them
1. Citizens and organizations have the right to access to
documented information about them, and to clarify that
information for purposes of guaranteeing its completeness and
reliability; and have the right to know who is using or has used
that information, and for what purposes. The limitation of the
access of citizens and organizations to information about them
is admissible only for the reasons stipulated by federal laws.
2. The possessor of documented information about citizens is
required to submit the information free of charge on the request
of those persons to whom it pertains. Limitations are possible
only in the instances stipulated by RF legislation.
3. The subjects that present information about themselves in
order to augment the information resources on the basis of
Articles 7 and 8 of this Federal Law have the right to use that
information free of charge.
4. Refusal of the possessor of the information resources to
provide the subject access to information about him can be
appealed in a court procedure.
Article 15. Obligations and Responsibility of the
Possessor of Information Resources
1. The possessor of information resources is required to
guarantee the observance of the processing regulations and the
rules for providing information to the user which have been
established by RF legislation or by the owner of those
information resources, in conformity with the legislation.
2. The possessor of the information resources bears the
legal
responsibility for violating the rules of operating with the
information, in the procedure stipulated by RF legislation.
Chapter 4. Informatization, Information Systems,
Technologies and Their Support Means
Article 16. Development and Production of Information
Systems, Technologies, and Their Support Means
1. All types of the production of information systems and
networks, technologies, and their support means constitute a
special branch of economic activity, the development of which is
determined by the state scientific-technical and industrial
policy of informatization.
2. State and nonstate organizations, as well as citizens,
have equal rights to develop and produce information systems,
technologies, and their support means.
3. The state creates the conditions for conducting
scientific-research and experimental-design projects in the area
of the development and production of information systems,
technologies, and their support means.
The RF government determines the priority trends in the
development of informatization and establishes the procedure for
financing them.
4. The development and operation of federal information
systems are financed from the funds in the federal budget, in
expense item "Informatics" ("Information Support").
5. State statistics agencies, jointly with the Committee on
Informatization Policy, under the President of the Russian
Federation, establish the rules for record-keeping and analysis
of the state of the branch of economic activity, the development
of which is determined by the state scientific-technical and
industrial policy of informatization.
Article 17. The Right to Own Information Systems,
Technologies, and Their Support Means
1. Information systems, technologies, and their support
means
can be objects of ownership by individuals, legal entities, and
the state.
2. The individual or legal entity that is recognized as the
owner of the information system, technology, and its support
means is the individual or legal entity with whose funds those
objects were produced, purchased, or obtained by way of
inheritance, donation, or other legal means.
3. Information systems, technologies, and their support
means
are included as part of the property of the subject that is
carrying out the rights of owner or possessor of those objects.
Information systems, technologies, and their support means act
as a commodity (output), with the observance of the exclusive
rights of their developers.
The owner of the information system, technology, and their
support means determines the conditions for using that output.
Article 18. Copyright and the Right to Own Information
Systems, Technologies, and Their Support Means
Copyright and the right to own information systems,
technologies, and their support means can belong to various
persons.
The owner of an information system, technology, and their
support means is required to protect the rights of their
originator in conformity with RF legislation.
Article 19. Certification of Information Systems,
Technologies, and Their Support Means, and the Licensing of the
Activity to Form and Use Information Resources
1. Information systems, bases, and data banks that are
intended to provide information services to citizens and
organizations are subject to certification in the procedure
established by RF Law "Certification of Output and Services."
2. The information systems of agencies of the state
authority
of the Russian Federation and organs of the state authority of
subjects of the Russian Federation, other state agencies, and
organizations that process documented information with limited
access, as well as means for protecting those systems, are
subject to mandatory certification. The certification procedure
is defined by RF legislation.
3. Organizations that carry out operations in the area of
designing and producing means to protect information and to
process personal data obtain licenses for that type of activity.
The licensing procedure is defined by RF legislation.
4. The interests of the information consumer during the use
of imported output in information systems are protected by the
customs agencies of the Russian Federation on the basis of an
international certification system.
Article 20. Purposes of Protection
The purposes of the protection are:
the prevention of leakage, theft, loss, distortion, or
forging of information;
the prevent of the threats to the safety of an
individual,
society, or the state;
the prevention of unsanctioned actions to destroy,
modify,
distort, copy, or block information; the prevention of other
forms of illegal interference in the information resources and
information systems; the guaranteeing of the legal conditions
pertaining to documented information as an object of ownership;
the protection of the citizens' constitutional rights to
maintain personal secrecy and the confidentiality of the
personal data contained in information systems;
the preservation of state secrecy, the confidentiality of
the documented information in conformity with legislation;
the guaranteeing of the subjects' rights in the
information processes and during the development, production,
and application of information systems, technologies, and their
support means.
Article 21. Protection of Information
1. Any documented information the improper handling of which
can cause damage to its owner, possessor, user, or any other
person is subject to protection.
The rules governing the protection of information are
established:
with respect to information that is included in the
category of a state secret: by authorized agencies on the basis
of RF Law "State Secret";
with respect to confidential documented information: by
the owner of the information resources or by an authorized agent
on the basis of this Federal Law;
with respect to personal information: by federal law.
2. Agencies of state authority and organizations that are
responsible for the formation and use of information resources
that are subject to protection, as well as agencies and
organizations that develop and apply information systems and
information technology for the purpose of forming and using
information resources with limited access, are guided in their
activity by RF legislation.
3. Monitoring of the observance of the requirements for the
protection of information and the operation of special
technically-programmed means of protection, as well as the
guaranteeing of organizational measures to protect the
information systems that are processing information with limited
access in nonstate structures, are carried out by agencies of
the state authority. Monitoring is carried out in the procedure
defined by the RF Government.
4. Organizations that process information with limited
access, which information is owned by the state, create a
special service that guarantees the protection of the
information.
5. The owner of the information resources or the persons
authorized by them have the right to monitor the execution of
the requirements concerning the protection of information and to
prohibit or suspend temporarily the processing of information in
the event of nonfulfillment of those requirements.
6. The owner or possessor of documented information has the
right to request agencies of state authority to evaluate the
correctness of the fulfillment of the norms and requirements for
protecting his information in the information systems. The
appropriate agencies are defined by the RF Government. These
agencies observe the conditions of the confidentiality of the
information itself and the results of the verification.
Article 22. Rights and Obligations of Subjects in the Area
of Information Protection
1. The owner of documents, a file of documents, or
information systems, or the persons authorized by them, in
conformity with this Federal Law, establish the procedure for
providing the user with information, with an indication of the
time, place, responsible officials, as well as the necessary
procedures, and guarantee the conditions of the users' access to
the information.
2. The owner of documents, a file of documents, or
information systems guarantees the level of protection of the
information in conformity with RF legislation.
3. The risk linked with the use of uncertified information
systems and their support means is borne by the owner
(possessor) of those systems and means.
The risk linked with the use of information obtained from an
uncertified system is borne by the user of the information.
4. The owner of documents, a file of documents, or
information systems can request the organizations certifying the
means of protecting information systems and information
resources to carry out an analysis of the sufficiency of the
measures to protect his resources and systems and to obtain
consultations.
5. The owner of documents, a file of documents, or
information systems is required to inform the owner of the
information resources and/or information systems concerning all
instances of violations of the rules governing the protection of
information.
Article 23. Protection of the Subjects' Rights in the
Sphere of Information Processes and Informatization
1. The protection of the subjects' rights in the sphere of
the formation of resources, the use of information resources,
and the development, production, and application of information
systems, technologies, and their support means is carried out
for purposes of preventing violations of the law, stopping
improper actions, restoring violated rights, and compensating
for damage that has been caused.
2. The protection of the subjects' rights in this sphere is
carried out by a court, a court of arbitration
[arbitrazhnyy sud]., or an arbitration tribunal
[treteyskiy sud], with the consideration of the
specifics of the violations of the law and the damage that was
caused.
3. For violations of the law when operating with documented
information, the agencies of state authority, organizations, and
their officials bear the responsibility in conformity with the
legislation of the Russian Federation and the subjects of the
Russian Federation.
In order to consider conflict situations and to protect the
rights of participants in the sphere of forming and using
information resources, creating, and using information systems,
technologies, and their support means, temporary or permanent
arbitration tribunals can be created.
An arbitration tribunal considers the conflicts and disputes
between the two sides in the procedure established by the
legislation governing artbitration tribunals.
4. Responsibility for violations of international norms and
rules in the area of the formation and use of information
resources, and the creation and use of information systems,
technologies, and their support means, is entrusted to agencies
of state authority, organizations, and citizens in conformity
with the contracts concluded by them with foreign companies and
other partners, with a consideration of the international
treaties that have been ratified by the Russian Federation.
Article 24. Protection of the Right to Access to
Information
1. Refusal to provide access to open information or the
providing to what is known to be unreliable information to the
users can be appealed by court procedure.
Nonexecution or improper execution of the pledges assumed in
a contract for delivery or buying-selling, or other forms of
exchanging information resources among organizations are
considered by a court of arbitration.
In all instances the persons who have been refused access to
the information and the person who have received unreliable
information have the right to compensation for the damages
caused to them.
2. The court considers disputes concerning the
unsubstantiated putting of information into the category of
information with limited access, and suits seeking the
compensation of damages in instances of unsubstantiated refusal
to provide information to users, or as a result of other
violation of the users' rights.
3. Administrators and other employees of agencies of state
authority and organizations who are guilty of the illegal
limitation of access to information or the violation of the
rules governing the protection of information bear the
responsibility in conformity with the criminal and civil
legislation and the legislation governing administrative
offenses.
Article 25. Entry into Effect of This Federal Law
1. This Federal Law goes into effect on the day of its
official promulgation.
2. It is proposed to the President of the Russian Federation
that he put the legal acts that have been issued by him into
conformity with this Federal Law.
3. The Government of the Russian Federation is instructed
to:
put the legal acts issued by that Government into
conformity with this Federal Law;
prepare and submit to the State Duma within a three-month
period, in the established procedure, recommendations concerning
the making of amendments and additions to the legislation of the
Russian Federation as a result of the enactment of this Federal
Law; and
enact the normative legal acts that guarantee the
implementation of this Federal Law.
[Signed] B. Yeltsin,
president of the Russian Federation
Moscow, the Kremlin
20 February 1995
No. 24-FZ
RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE-RELATED LEGAL DOCUMENTS