Foreign software a threat to national security: Russian lawmakers (AFP)

MOSCOW (AFP) - The use of foreign software by Russian government agencies and state-owned installations threatens the country's national security and should be banned, Russian lawmakers said.

A group of lawmakers from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party has put forward amendments to "ban the use of foreign technical programming in state information systems in strategic sectors and important installations of the Russian Federation," a written statement said.

Alexander Khinshtein, one of the lawmakers, was quoted as saying: "To guarantee the Russian Federation's information security there needs to be a state programme to create a full array of programme systems."

More than 90 percent of computer technology used by the Russian state is foreign, the statement said.

"Our country is addicted to foreign programming, which allows unscrupulous officials to receive bribes" by managing state procurement, Gennady Gudkov, another lawmaker, was quoted as saying.

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