© S. A. Khvalev
As last statistical studies show, the number of users of information and telecommunication network “Internet”(hereinafter referred to as the Internet) is growing in Russia. The Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation reported that the number of Internet users in Russia increased by 5.4% and amounted to 70 million people in 2011, 2012. In 2013, according to some forecasts, the number of Internet users in Russia will reach 90 million people [1].

 Many scientists expressed the opinion that the Internet, in general, has already outgrown the ordinary understanding of being a communication means between people. As the literature notes, the Internet is independent space or as it is called "cyberspace", which creates a new reality in many ways for individuals and organizations, as well as for countries. The Internet can be regarded as one of the major life spheres along with earth, water, air and space, and shall be coordinated with the help of legal measures [2]. Basing on such understanding of the Internet nature, it is clear that the impact of the Internet on a personal identity should be reconsidered. In modern society, the Internet is closely linked to the implementation of the most important constitutional rights such as the right of association, the right to freedom of thought and speech, with various rights related to information dissemination, transfer, receipt and use of information [3].

Therefore, the Internet is an integral part of the personality status of a modern human. Even now you can meet such a notion as a virtual personality, who is an active participant in many public relations [4].

As it is stated in the literature, the powerful impact of new technologies on the legal regime of electoral relations generates adequate changes and qualitative improvement of the relevant legislation [5]. Thus, changing electoral law, ensuring its correlation with the information legislation is an obvious need of a modern Russian society.

As practice of the latest federal and municipal elections in Irkutsk region shows, the Internet increasingly becomes a means of dissemination and a source to get campaign information. Campaigning in the Internet extends through organizing of mailout, blogs, forums, etc. As it is truly noted, a lot of educated and politically active people increasingly trust the Internet, rather than lobbying and leafleting, traditional media [6].

The Internet as a propaganda platform is being used for a long time in the developed societies. For the first time, the Internet was used for propaganda during the United States presidential campaign in 1992. Gradually Internet-using pre-election campaign has become a common phenomenon all over the world. Usage of Internet campaigning in elections differs and depends on many factors in various countries. However, the fact that the Internet is becoming an integral part of the electoral process is undeniable.

There are two models of legal regulation of election campaign in the Internet:
1. The model based on preventive measures. The relevant legal regulations rely on a system of preventive measures, such as: moderation, traffic control, locking web sites as well as the whole services containing "undesirable" information (China, Iran, Kazakhstan) [7]. We can illustrate the relevant example of regulating experience in France, according to which registration of all the owners of Internet resources is obligatory. The authors of the sites hosted on French servers must provide their personal data to the Internet service providers before the Internet resource start operation. The users may face imprisonment for six months in case of uploading incomplete or false information. Moreover, there is criminal liability for the Internet service providers who provide users who have not passed identification, with hosting services [8].

In particular, if there is a violation of legislation, the Internet Fund shall inform the Internet service provider who hosts the specified Internet resource. For exemption from criminal liability the Internet service provider shall delete the specified information from the server or restrict the site access.

It should be noted that in Russia such selective relations appeared recently, despite the wide practice of legal regulation of Internet interactions in foreign countries.

Apparently, the Internet is an attractive mean of campaign distribution for the following reasons:

1) ability to access information from anywhere in the world, as well as to use it easily and quickly [11];

2) significant coverage of territory and population, as well as non-stop operating  [12];

3) relative cheapness of electronic promotional materials and distribution services [13];

4) no limits for the form and content of an Internet resource.

However, it should be noted that such attractiveness is largely caused by the absence of an accurate legislative regulation of the Internet pre-election campaign.

There are following negative points which affect the civilized relations between information distributors and its users in the Internet:

1) lack of a unified, standardized terminology, as well as the principles of Internet activities [14];

2) lack of legal regulation of the Internet managers, their status, as well as the rules of arranging the place and time of legally significant online actions [15];

3) lack of mechanisms of legal responsibility for violation of the rules of organization and procedure of election campaign in the Internet.

The active legislation does not directly prohibit online campaigning. Though the ways of carrying out such campaigns are hardly regulated.

Also the court practice has not established any general rules for the Internet usage in the election campaign activities. In most cases, the courts in the Russian Federation try to stay away from the specified problem. When the same question about estimation of the Internet campaign materials arises, the courts examine only the following aspects of the disputable jural relations:

- The content of the distributed information is estimated, as well as compliance with the general rules of campaign activities (adequate funding, lack of extremism signs, intellectual property law compliance) [16]. The way of distributing campaign information is not assessed, i.e. the courts do not consider the Internet as a mean of distributing information. It is not estimated whether the internet resource has a status of media or not [17];

- The courts consider the Internet as a source of information which is used in a different agitation material. However, the information accuracy and the liability of Internet resources owners are not considered by the courts [18].

One of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is remarkable for the Court expressly stated that the Internet is an information field not regulated by legal acts [19].

As it has already been noted, the problem of online election relations was raised repeatedly. There are also competitive proposals for this issue. In particular, some members of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation proposed the following resolution of the situation:

- If a website is registered as a network media [20], the provisions of electoral law which regulate the radio, television and periodicals campaigning should be used;

- If a website is not registered as a network media for campaigning then the agitation information should be complied with the provisions, applicated to audiovisual and other outreach materials [21].
In this case, we talk about the application of law on the basis of analogy. The Institute is not provided by the electoral law. However, even if you don't pay attention to the fact that the analogy of law is not applied in this case, many problems arise anyway.

Some regulations of the electoral legislation related to virtual space need to be revised substantially. So, the provisions that oblige to indicate circulation of agitation material cannot be applied to the Internet, since the notion of circulation is not used in the web space. [22].  By analogy, the rules of campaign finance cannot be applied in the Internet. Thus, the literature indicates that the costs of distributing materials in the Internet are so small that it is often impossible to determine the value of agitation materials whether it is created with a layout or it should also include renting an Internet channel in production costs of Internet material [23]. It is difficult to determine time limits of agitation in the Internet.

Therefore, we can say that currently the legal basis for the Internet legal usage is not formed for campaign purposes. While many scientists and law executers note that formation of the legal framework should be started with the formulation of standardized international documents (international standards) governing the Internet usage in the area of election relations [24]. Secondly, a principal federal law regulating the Internet should be developed and adopted. Finally, it is noted that the problem related to the need for special regulation of the pre-election campaign boundaries in the Internet appeared [25].

However, a legislator will face a number of serious difficulties in the formulation of the relevant regulations of the electoral law, as follows:

- Firstly, the property of Internet extraterritoriality stipulates the possibility of creating an Internet resource with agitation information outside the Russian Federation [26], and therefore the jurisdiction correlation of different states should be overviewed;

- Secondly, the anonymity of users or the ability to easily impersonate others, to create sites-counterpart is typical for the Internet [27]. Thus, the problem of identification of Internet users appeared;

- Thirdly, the difficulty arises with the determination of the reasons, subjects and measures of liability for the electoral law non-compliance (for the misrepresentation of information, inaccuracy of information, etc.) in the Internet [28].

It appears that the existing problems can be solved by adopting provisions of holding election campaign in the Internet, at certain Internet sites. There are two ways to identify such sites: 1) to install a specific list of internet resources; 2) to fix system requirements of such internet resources in the electoral legislation. If the web-site corresponds to these requirements, candidates and electoral associations could use it to distribute campaign information.

Many discussions could be held in reference to these requirements. In order to resolve the mentioned problems, the main requirements shall be as follows:

- Internet resource must have the characteristics of network media. The requirement could give the opportunity to impact the Internet resources owners and editors with legal mechanisms provided by the mass media law as well as the ability to control the activities of such sites not only by election commissions, but also by the authorized body of the executive power in the sphere of mass communications;

- Relevant Internet resources should be accredited or certificated in order to confirm the technical capabilities of the Network Edition of media credibility. It needs to provide the security of posting agitation material, as well as the constant monitoring of such distribution;

- Internet resource must be registered within the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. Change the "nationality" of the Internet resource shall not be permitted;

- There should be a defined system of requirements to promote the site online.

The proposed model of campaigning is a variation of the civilized usage of the Internet in agitation purpose. In this case, the model assumes that not all online space will be used in the elections frame that leads to restriction of the constitutional right of freedom to seek and receive information. However, this restriction is justified at the present development stage of Internet relations in Russia. Thus, we should agree with the opinion of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation that stated the need to maintain balance during the election campaign of interrelated, constitutionally protected values, such as free elections and freedom of information space [29].