THE INTERNET AS MEDIUM FOR ONLINE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN CITIZENS AND GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

The article covers issues of arranging the communication interaction between Russian citizens and government authorities on the Internet during the period of 2000s-2010s. This period can be divided into four phases of arranging the network interaction between citizens and government authorities. The first phase covers a period of 2000-2003 when government authorities created their representative sites on the Internet. The main characteristic feature of this period is thought to be a control by regional government authorities over network communication channels. During the second phase, 2004-2010, there was observed an active development of such social networks as Facebook, Twitter and their Russian counterparts as VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and other, as well as the development of blogospheres. This resulted in increasing the citizens' social activity in the network when discussing socially important and political issues. Then the government authorities of Federal constituent entities appeared to be under fierce criticism by citizen and, in order to relieve tensions, they had to follow proposed citizens-authorities intercommunication options by creating both authority representative accounts and personal accounts of individual officials in social networks. There they could take part in discussions on key regional issues and problems. In 2011-2012, during the third phase, the mechanisms of citizens' network communication and collective discussions on key problems in the online mode were developed. There, being supported by regional government authorities, various online surveys and online offices gained widespread currency. During the fourth phase, 2013-2014, government authorities strengthened control over social networks, blogospheres and chat and discussion forums that has become the main characteristic feature of this period. Such a situation is mainly expressed in enhancing the legislative regulation of online activities and in narrowing a circle of discussion topics relating to government authority activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]