BRICS Report: Russia

Russian parliament members have labelled a recent call to exclude Russia from the UN Human Rights Council mere speculation, adding that the move reminds them of the biased approach to terrorists in Russia’s North Caucasus territories. Over 80 NGOs call for Russia to be dropped from UN rights council over Syria.   Over half of Russians think that the outcome of the upcoming US presidential election is important for their country, and many expect US-Russian relations to worsen further if Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton is victorious in November. According to the latest survey conducted by state-run public opinion centre VTSIOM, 57 percent of Russian citizens think that the results of the looming US presidential elections will be important for their country, while 38 percent don’t think they will have any impact on relations between the two nations, either way.   The world's largest professional network LinkedIn could soon be blocked in Russia. The company has failed to comply with a law that obliges companies to keep data on Russian users in the country. Apart from not moving servers to Russia, LinkedIn collects and sends information about people who are not users of the network without their consent, according to the Russian internet watchdog Roskomnadzor. According to the spokesman, Moscow’s Tagansky District Court has ruled in favor of the watchdog, but LinkedIn has appealed to a higher court. LinkedIn is the world's largest business and employment oriented social network. As of 2015, it had 400 million users with 5 million people registered in Russia.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.