Sergei Zheleznyak says Kremlin should create its own 'backdoor' access following revelations of NSA's internet surveillance

A prominent Russian MP has called on the country to boost its "digital sovereignty" and wean its citizens off foreign websites following revelations that the US was operating surveillance systems to spy on foreigners' electronic communications.

Sergei Zheleznyak, a member of the ruling United Russia party and deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament, wrote in a column published on Wednesday that the revelations, leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, should prompt Russia to re-strategise its approach to the internet.

He said he would introduce legislation this autumn to create a "national server", which analysts say would require foreign websites to register on Russian territory, thus giving the Kremlin's own security services "backdoor" access.

Russia has been seeking ways to address the skyrocketing growth of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook in the country, particularly following street protests that accompanied Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin last year.

"The US, which presents itself as a bastion of democracy, has in fact been carrying out minute-by-minute surveillance of tens of millions of citizens of Russia and other countries," Zheleznyak wrote in the online journal Ekonomika i Zhizn (Economics and Life).

"All the main internet companies that were formed in the US are involved in this ugly story, and these companies operate on the territory of our country."

Referring to the Duma's recent adoption of an anti-gay law, Zheleznyak continued: "The Americans reproach us for curbing the propaganda of sodomy among kids and then stick their noses into the personal correspondence of tens of millions of Russian citizens."

Zheleznyak said that "naive Russian users" of social media were "actually being cynically used" in order to have their information, including financial information, gathered and stored. He said Russia should conduct a "thorough investigation of American companies' and intelligence agencies' illegal access to the private information of Russian citizens".

"I think we must secure the digital sovereignty of our country. The world is changing," Zheleznyak wrote. He proposed creating a national "server network" that would include "personal data and information" and subject all websites to Russian laws.

Andrei Soldatov, an analyst who focuses on the Russian security services and internet, said: "It seems that the NSA scandal makes a perfect excuse for the Russian authorities to launch a campaign to bring global web platforms such as Gmail, Facebook or Twitter under Russian jurisdiction – either requiring them to be accessible in Russia by the domain extension '.ru', or obliging them to be hosted on Russian territory. In this case the services would be required to build backdoors for the Russian secret services."

Zheleznyak also said the Kremlin should boost support of the Russian web industry. "We must create our own information products, and not use others'," he wrote.