JRL NEWSWATCH: “Great Firewall fears as Russia plans to cut itself off from internet; Moscow says temporary disconnection is a test of its cyberdefence capabilities” – The Guardian (UK)/ Alex Hern, Marc Bennetts in Moscow

February 13, 2019 JRL Russia List Politics, Government, Protests, Elections

File Image of Laptop Computer, Tables and Mobile Device, adapted from image at energy.gov

“Russia is planning to temporarily disconnect from the internet … to test its cyberdefence capabilities[, a]ccording to a report on the Russian news site RBC … to analyse … preparedness for a draft law mandating a ‘sovereign’ internet. Under the draft law, all internal internet traffic would be carried within the country’s own networks. Any traffic that leaves Russia would be forced to go thorough registered exchange points, subject to regulation by … state communications regulator Roskomnadzor. Ostensibly the goal … is to protect the Russian internet from the U.S., which has an offensive cybersecurity strategy and lists Russia as one of the major sources of hacking attacks. However, many observers think the creation of a Russian intranet is a further step towards a goal of duplicating the Great Firewall of China to restrict the access of the country’s internet users …. Russia has already moved to block webpages run by opposition figures such as … Navalny …. Agora, a Russian human rights group, said in a report this month that Russian internet freedoms had fallen fivefold in the past 12 months. …”