Banning services from certain countries is common nowadays, and after Google’s problems with certain governments, it appears that other free services such as Skype and Hotmail could be banned in Russia along with Gmail.

It might be just paranoia of the Russian government, but according to some sources, Russian Security service might ban Skype, Hotmail, and Gmail since they might be a threat to national security. Federal Security Service cannot access the data that is hosted on remote servers out of the country, and therefore it cannot monitor conversations between users.

The Russian government is concerned about malicious users, but banning particular service isn’t the solution to the problem, as there are many different alternatives available on the market. In addition, Federal Security Service responded to such accusations saying that they don’t plan on banning any of these services or other online services.

What will happen with Gmail, Skype and Hotmail in Russia remains to be seen, but one thing is certain, banning of services is not the answer.

[via Ubergizmo]