Text of report by Russian news agency Ekho Moskvy
Moscow, 27 December: The head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications, Mikhail Seslavinskiy, has said that the Soviet-era network of radio jamming stations should be preserved and used in case of emergency. “It has been mothballed for the last 15 years and its economic condition is bad, but it still exists and, I think, it would be preserved,” he said.
“It should be kept on hold. All countries have some plans for war or serious emergency. There must be a technical opportunity to shut down radio communications if something extraordinary happens. This is a common world practice during anti-terrorist operations: jamming stations are switched on, and nobody can use mobile phones, listen to the radio or watch television,” Seslavinskiy said.
Speaking about the situation with background noise which makes it difficult to listen to the BBC in Russia, Seslavinskiy said that the problem was solely technical. “I think that the problem is generated by the transmission operator. The Russian partner of the BBC should examine on what bands it broadcasts and whether its signal interferes with anyone else’s,” he said.
(Source: Ekho Moskvy news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1257 gmt 27 Dec 06 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)