Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed the internet was created by American spies.
Putin said the internet was a "CIA project" and said Russia needed to protect itself from intrusion into its affairs online from outside forces.
In doing so, Putin raised fears that he may try to create a separate 'Russian' internet in order to protect the country from outside surveillance.
The idea has grown in popularity since the revelations by US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden about American surveillance of online communications.
Interestingly, Putin has not denied that Russia carries out similar surveillance to the US. Putin answered a question to that effect from Snowden himself - who is resident in Russia - at a recent TV Q&A by saying merely "we don't have as much money as they do in the US".
Meanwhile the Russian parliament passed a law this week requiring foreign social media websites to run their servers in Russia, and the head of the country's leading Facebook alternative 'VKontakte' was ousted in favour of businessmen close to Putin.