Russian President Vladimir Putin's recently appointed special advisor on Internet matters has ties to a Russian torrent site listing pirated content, which is illegal in Russia, according to a report by file-sharing news site TorrentFreak.
Torrent site Torrnado.ru, which prominently displays listings for recent Hollywood movies, is registered to a company with ties to Russian Internet mogul and newly appointed advisor German Klimenko. Russian media have reported Klimenko actually controls the site, according to TorrentFreak.
Klimenko, whose first name is sometimes spelled Herman in English, was appointed to his position by executive order earlier this month, according to a brief announcement from the Kremlin.
Klimenko told Russian media that he doesn't own the site "in a legal sense," and that the site complies with requests from copyright holders to take down pirated material, according to The Moscow Times.
According to TorrentFreak, Klimenko also controls the Russian portal site LiveInternet.ru and analytics platform MediaMetrics.ru. LiveInternet displays a prominent link to Torrnado.ru.
Klimenko recently urged copyright holders not to push too hard on piracy issues until the economy is doing better, according to the TorrentFreak report.