firm can. Selling and buying isnt controlled, but if one is stopped by the police, which is almost inevitable since the explosions in September 99, and there is no official permission for the mobile phone, it is confiscated. In my attempt to write about the spread of the Internet in Russia I cannot come to a fair closing without mentioning the RUSLANet project. It is based and carried out by the St. Petersburg State Technical University. The project is a future library system for the Northwest of Russia, so that libraries in these regions can have access to and from the world wide information resources. It was started two years ago, and involves careful planning, sponsor searching, lots of PR skills, as well as computer science knowledge. Today the project is at the following stage: the OPAC (which supports multi user access for any access level simultaneously) has been realised, fulltext databases, hierarchy of WBs, WWW server, search means for Internet clients. This is only the first step in the whole project. The second phase is about the development of practical interlibrary communications and dispersal of the developed and creates greater availability of the service to numerous libraries in the region. This project is going to bring incredible advantages to the scholars of that region. The boundaries of access are going to step back if not disappear all together. This project is going to allow libraries to go on the net without Internet direct connection. Which is going to be done through the master server. The RUSLANet project is going to eliminate some of the difficulties I have mentioned before in this paper. This network is going to allow Internet to be used not only for entertainment or commercial purposes, but for educational purposes too, like it is being used in the west.Even though Russia doesnt use all of the advantages of the web, the country is known for its speedy decisions and changes. We were struggling for almost ...
