President Vladimir Putin is no fan of the internet, calling it a CIA project, and saying he prefers to get his information from other sources. Russian security services have reportedly advised officials against using Gmail, and legislation was considered recently that would prohibit government employees from discussing official information over non-state email accounts.

Google has criticised state restrictions on the internet in the past. Last year, Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman, said he was worried that Russia was beginning to copy China in internet censorship. Google closed its internet search service in China in 2010 after it stopped cooperating with government censors.

Originally posted by Euphoric