Russia has been a country of change for quite some time now. It's easy to forget that, as few as 30 years ago, it was a completely communist nation, run by an utterly different system of government than it is today, and was regarded by many as a clear and present threat to the world as we knew it. But Russia's changes over the last few decades haven’t always been easy, simple, pleasant, or any of the three combined; sometimes Russia's change has been difficult and occasionally downright lunatic. Recently we saw just how bizarre change in Russia could get with the proposal of new legislation around Skype calling in the country.

Essentially, reports suggested that there were a set of amendments proposed regarding dealing with calls made with Skype (News - Alert). The new legislation would require the call's operator to send certain information about the caller's number, and those operators who didn't—or couldn't—abide by the rules would have licenses denied, and the ability of same to operate within Russia would be largely lost. But the key point there is that someone who calls a regular phone number with SkypeOut displays what looks like a local number, until someone tries to call said local number. Then it becomes clear that the number in question doesn't exist, and that there's no “real” number to show. That means most any voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) or similar operation would be basically shut down in Russia, unable to get licenses because of an inability to show the required number.

That's a huge step, and according to further reports, one that was too big for the Russians to take. Not long after making the proposal—and well ahead of a planned reading in the Russian Duma, its equivalent of a parliament—the proposal was subsequently shelved. Jaroslav Nilov, who serves as both one of the bill's sponsors and a member of the Duma, noted that there were no plans to ban Skype, and to prove that such wasn't really planned, Nilov called for “defer[red] consideration” in a move to “ease the tension.”

Reports also suggested that the move was taken on as something of a protectionist measure, with the standard refrain about how over the top (OTT) services like Skype were killing the market for local telecommunications firms, and so the measure was introduced in a move to get users back to the more standard services.

There's a certain amount of trial-and-error here from the sounds of things, with government officials advancing big and impressive ideas only to discover that no one actually wants what's being sold, so to speak. Even a country like Russia depends on the will of the people—at least, the will of the people to not go smashing in windows at the Kremlin and dragging the occupants into the street in a second October Revolution (News - Alert)—so it can go just so far. But if the telecommunications industry in Russia buckles, there's a lot of jobs lost, and that's the kind of thing that can bring back the window-smashing, so Russia has to walk something of a fine line between catering to the business and following the will of the people.

Just where Russia is going with all this remains to be seen, but the nature of politics has always been a confusing one. Russia may never accomplish half of the radical moves it's setting out to do, but its willingness to consider anything has to be at least some comfort.