How Russia could cut itself off from the global Internet, and | USSR 2.0

How Russia could cut itself off from the global Internet, and why it probably won't

There has long been evidence that the Kremlin aspires to separate the Russian Internet from the rest of the world. In 2019, Russian lawmakers approved a series of amendments to the country's communications laws collectively known as the "Sovereign Internet Law". These obliged Russian Internet service providers to install equipment to monitor Internet traffic and centralised control of the country's communications networks.

They also brought about the creation of a Russian DNS, or "domain name system," a crucial piece of infrastructure if Russia were to separate its Internet from the rest of the world.

But despite the government's efforts, Russia is not ready to make the switch to a domestic DNS. The important factor is Russia's economic and technological reliance on the outside world. Unlike in China - another country that has tightly controlled Internet access - Russia's attempt at building a “sovereign Internet” is relatively recent. The country is far more integrated into the global internet, and far more economically reliant on the access it provides.

In the weeks since the invasion of Ukraine began, chipmakers, software providers and financial services have stopped doing business with Russian customers as sanctions take hold.
Among the companies pulling out of the country was the American internet service providers Cogent, one of the largest Internet backbone providers in the world, and Lumen, one of the largest international data transport providers in Russia.

While international ISPs pulling out of Russia will not cut the country off from the Internet, it will limit bandwidth, potentially lowering the speed of Internet traffic as remaining providers become increasingly congested.

Importantly, this will also negatively impact other neutral countries in region - specifically, the Central Asian countries.

The important argument against cutting off Russia's Internet access is that it could limit Russians' access to accurate information from abroad about the war in Ukraine.

But despite rumours of a total decoupling from the global Internet, and the threat of growing censorship within the country, the huge rise in VPN traffic from Russia, as well as efforts to offer access to information are a sign of hope.

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