Russia and China are reportedly collaborating to facilitate the introduction of China’s Great Firewall into the “Red Web”, which is Russia’s system of filtering and monitoring internet usage, The Guardian reported. The development aims to curb protesters and restrict the spread of anti-government movements, observers said.

Earlier this year, the Russian parliament introduced Yarovaya’s law, which makes it mandatory for the country’s telecoms and internet providers to store users’ data for six months and metadata for three years. Moscow blocked business networking site LinkedIn earlier this month.

High-level meetings held during the year have yielded agreements where China has agreed to share technology with Russia. Russia could not have accessed he technology from Western sources owing to restrictions. In attendance at the meetings were the Father of the Great Firewall, Fang Binxing, and President Vladimir Putin’s assistant on internet issues, Igor Shchyogolev.

Denis Davydov, executive director of government-affiliated body League of Safe Internet, said, “The principal agreement to have a forum was reached by Igor Shchyogolev and Fang Binxing at a meeting in December 2015 in Beijing,” according to The Guardian. In August it was reported that the Russian telecoms equipment manufacturer Bulat was negotiating with Chinese telecoms company Huawei.