In a meeting on Monday, Medvedev said that it was “unacceptable” for sensitive and confidential information to be transmitted via the infrastructure of “foreign telecommunications companies”.
“I draw this to the attention of the Ministry of Communications,” Medvedev said.
Andrej Polyakov, a spokesperson for Rostelecom, told local reporters that the company has since started work on the launch of telecoms operations in Crimea.
“The company’s specialists are working on this problem and are looking for the best ways to resolve it,” Polyakov said.
Most landline services in Ukraine are provided by the country’s largest fixed-line operator, state-owned Ukrtelecom. Mobile services are provided by privately-owned mobile networks, two of which are majority Russian-owned: MTS and VimpelCom.
VimpelCom decreased the value of its business in Ukraine earlier this month, as a result of the country’s political problems.
