The waiver may have been good news for Intel, but because the underlying regulations remained in place it did not "appear to represent a breakthrough in the importation of commercial products with cryptographic content," the cable states.

Former Intel Chairman and CEO Craig Barrett met with Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev to discuss "this and other issues," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy in an e-mail. "We didn't threaten anyone," he said. " We lobbied and negotiated with the Russian government on behalf of ourselves and OEMs and distributors to make it easier. This is all routine stuff when it comes to dealing with governments around the world."

Both the FSB -- Russia's state police service -- and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade must sign off on encryption import licenses -- a six-month process that involves laboratory analysis. Russia agreed to streamline the process in 2006 but had not done much to fix the problem, the cable states.

The IDG News Service