Some 32.7m users in Russia had continuous access to the internet in May of the current year, which accounted for almost 30% of the country’s population, Moscow-based Public Opinion Foundation reported.

The ratio of almost one-third puts Russia on the fourth position in the world in terms of internet penetration after Germany, Brazil and the UK. The foundation’s report stipulates that in gender structure the internet is more popular among males (33%) than females (25%). Some 69% of internet users access the web from home and 40% at their workplace. Besides this, almost 10% of Russian internet users browse the Web via cell phones. Referring to the forecast by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications from several months ago, the report claims the country may score second in Europe in respect of total number of internet users, which is expected to amount to 46m by the end of 2008.