A "digital Gulag archipelago" in the eastern part of Romania? Russia is planning to unplug from the internet
Alexandra-Maria COLCER
The intentions of the Russian authorities to create an alternative internet have sparked a lot of reactions in major capitals, including Washington, where it is estimated that through this decision Moscow is trying to decouple the Russian public and informational space from the Euro-Atlantic one, causing a new isolation of the Russian world and creating new mechanisms of ideology.
Given the effects of this decision on the ability to connect the Russian world to the rest of the world, as well as on a geopolitical point of view, we intend to analyze in detail the context, objectives and possible consequences of the Kremlin's strategy of creating the new Russian world, which can be called a "digital Gulag archipelago".
On the 12th of February 2019 the press release the news about Russian intention of disconnecting the entire country from the Internet in the short term as an experiment to gather data and provide information about the National Digital Economy Program was published. This bill requires Internet providers (ISPs) to provide ongoing services if the country is decoupled from internationally-located Domain Name System (DNS) servers.
The country’s plan to disconnect itself from the rest of the connected world is to ensure complete control of its Internet traffic and to build a deep moat to isolate RusNet and all computer networks from any external cyber-attacks.
According to the draft law, the internal Internet traffic will be transmitted entirely on the country's own networks. Any traffic that will leave Russia will go through a series of control points.
The main objective of this law, according to independent experts, is the protection of the Russian Internet by the United States, which has an offensive strategy and appreciates that Russia would be one of the main sources of hacking attacks. It wants to ensure the functionality of the Internet even if it is interrupted by the rest of the world.
To achieve this goal, Russia is considering a new law allowing the national telecommunications supervisor, Roskomnadzor, to control internet traffic through filtering points.
A brief history of Internet freedom
Over time, the Russian Internet network has blocked certain sites or publications that were not in line with the Kremlin's policy.
In 2018, The New Economy lists the top five banned sites in Russia: LinkedIn, Telegram, Open Russia, National Endowment for Democracy, and a number of VPNs. According to RosKomSvoboda, a public organization whose activities are aimed to combat Internet censorship and promoting the freedom of information and self-regulation of the Internet industry, there would be 147,828 prohibited sites.
Roskomnadzor was founded in 2008, when it separated itself from the Federal Service for Supervision of Mass Media, Telecommunications, and Protection of Cultural Heritage. It took over the oversight of all media and communications, including the allocation of radio waves, the construction of communication links, and the issuing of warnings to media sources that violate laws (three warnings can result in closure).
Roskomnadzor first came under the media spotlight in 2009, when the head of the agency warned media sources that they were responsible for what is posted by readers in the “comments” or “forum” sections of their websites. The official stated, “if the editorial board doesn’t want any trouble with the regulatory authorities, they have to moderate their forums.” If “extremist” comments posted by any reader are found on a media website, this could result in a warning from Roskomnadzor. Some websites closed their forums, while others hired special moderators to monitor their “comments” sections. This situation revealed some of what was to come in Russian Internet regulation. But it was only the beginning.
Real fame came to Roskomnadzor officials in 2012, when the were passed as the law on “protecting minors from information that may harm their heath and development”. The amendments are also known as “the blacklist law” or “the law on Internet censorship.” The main change the amendments brought was the introduction of a list of websites featuring “forbidden information.” The category “forbidden information” is defined by groups of experts from regulatory authorities such the Federal Drug Control Service or the State Agency for Health and Consumer Rights, and includes child pornography, information on illicit drugs, and instructions on how to commit suicide. The list was created for communications providers, who are supposed to block their clients from accessing blacklisted web pages.
Russia is not the only country who blocked certain sites, especially pornography, but also those containing information that is not in accordance with the principles promoted by the country's leadership or regarded as threatening national security; Myanmar, Vietnam, Tunisia, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, China, North Korea and many others did the same.
In the summer of 2012, a few days before the Russian parliament was due to vote on the blacklist amendments, Wikipedia, LiveJournal, social network VKontakte, and Russian search engine Yandex participated in the biggest strike in the history of the Russian Internet. Wikipedia placed a banner on its website saying, “Imagine a world without free knowledge.”
Between November 2012 and March 2015, Roskomnadzor blocked 52,000 web pages: 37,000 contained information on illicit drugs, 7,700 infant pornography, and 5,500 pages of information on suicide propagation.
Websites such as Wikipedia, Facebook, LiveJournal, Twitter, Youtube, Vimeo, and Vkontakte have been blocked over time.
Some Russian publications compare this initiative with a new "Iron Curtain" and some human rights activists warn that the bill could seriously threaten the freedom of the Internet in the country.
What is the project on disconnecting from the global network?
The bill seeks to route Russian web traffic and data through points controlled by the government and proposes building a national Domain Name System to allow the Internet to continue functioning even if the country is cut off from foreign infrastructure. The legislation is a response to what the authors claim is an aggressive new U.S. national cyber security strategy.
The bill also proposes installing network equipment that would be able to identify the source of web traffic and also block banned content. The legislation, which can still be amended, but which is expected to pass, is part of a drive by officials to increase Russian “sovereignty” over its Internet segment. The bill faces two more votes in the lower chamber, before it will be voted on in the upper house of parliament and then will be signed into law by President Vladimir Putin.
In the short term the planned disconnection is largely intended to assuage the fears of domestic internet service providers that the draft legislation could impose huge costs on them and harm the reliability of the Russian internet.
In the long run, the draft law would allow Moscow to effectively stop external sites and services based on foreign servers and filter traffic, while the Russian Internet will operate autonomously. The bill proposes that data transferred between Internet service providers pass through new "traffic control points" that could be identified individually.
Russia has introduced stricter Internet laws over the past five years, demanding search engines to erase certain results, messaging services - sharing encryption keys with security services and social networks - store personal data of Russian users on servers in the country .
All Russian internet providers would be forced to install technical means to counter the threats to the Russian Internet. With their help, all sites that are against the new regulations will be blocked.
In addition, the tools required for this new monitoring system would be offered free of charge, subsidized entirely by the state.
Initially, the budget for information security was 27.9 billion rubles. Experts in the field say they still need another 20 billion rubles (estimated amount, before departments will have to provide solid justification).
To sum up, this project aims to test a cyber defense law, requiring Russian telecoms companies to create the so-called sovereign Internet.
A working group was set up to test the project and assess the costs, and the final report should be ready by 1 April this year before it becomes an official law.
The evolution of this law will be detailed in our following articles.
