On Friday, Russia tightened its control of the Internet, with a new decree that requires people using public Wi-Fi hotspots to provide their passport details for identification. The move has triggered protests from bloggers, and has also led to confusion among telecom operators on how the new regulation would be implemented.

The new decree by the Russian government marks an amendment of an existing law. According to the new clause, "providing communication services on data transfer and Internet connection will be done by the operator... after user identification."

As per the new decree, the full name and passport details of an Internet user logging on to public Wi-Fi networks will have to be collected by the Wi-Fi connection provider. The data will have to be stored for a period of six months, together with the details about the time-duration for which a user was logged on.

The new stipulation laid down by the Russian government marks the latest blow to Internet users in the country. The move has been denounced by opponents of President Vladimir Putin as yet another effort to control even the smallest dissent.

In reaction to the Wi-Fi curbs by the government, Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny said in a blog post: "This is as bad as it sounds and even slightly worse. Before our eyes a real "big brother" is being created... a system that knows who wrote what, where, and from what device."