A man surfs the web at an Internet cafe in Moscow. Russia plans to restrict foreign investment in "strategic" Internet portals and websites as a national security measure, the daily Vedomosti reported Thursday.

Russia plans to restrict foreign investment in "strategic" Internet portals and websites as a national security measure, the daily Vedomosti reported Thursday.

The communications ministry is in the process of developing "security criteria" that will determine which firms will be prohibited from seeking foreign investment, the newspaper said, quoting a ministry spokeswoman.

"The Internet has de facto become a strategic resource," the spokeswoman, Elena Lashkina, was quoted as saying.

Criteria for determining which companies would be on the "strategic" list were still being worked out, she said.

The report appeared a day after President Dmitry Medvedev cautioned on foreign investment in the web in Russia.

"The arrival of foreign investors ... is unavoidable on one hand," Medvedev said in comments at a conference of the ruling United Russia party, released by the Kremlin.

"But at the same time -- I hope this doesn't sound too conservative -- this needs to be watched closely because it is a security issue," the Russian president said.

Medvedev's remarks came after young protesters in the neighboring ex-Soviet republic of Moldova attacked the country's parliament amid snap demonstrations that were organised using Internet technology.

Moscow has voiced "extreme concern" at the events in Moldova, which it described as "provoked."

In July, Russian anti-trust authorities blocked Google from buying a stake in Rambler, one of the country's top three Internet portals.

© 2009 AFP