Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the internet a "CIA project" and has warned Russians against making Google searches.

Mr Putin on Thursday told a group of young journalists the internet was controlled from the start by the CIA and its surveillance continues today.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the televised meeting. Credit:Reuters

"That's life. That's how it's organised by Americans. You know all of this started during the dawn of the internet as a special project of the CIA," he said in televised comments.

Responding to questions from a pro-Kremlin blogger, Mr Putin warned that information entered on Google "all goes through servers that are in the States, everything is monitored there".