In November 2019, Russia’s so-called “Internet sovereignty law” took effect, requiring all local telecom operators to install special equipment designed to “withstand foreign threats” and block anything added by Roskomnadzor (the federal censor) to the government’s registry of banned online content. The new regulations are still unenforceable in practice, but officials are already testing the …
Russia’s State Duma is in the process of passing over 50 laws to regulate new technologies in the IT sector, which last year generated almost 5% of GDP and is growing at a rate of 10 to 15%. The most controversial of them — the so-called sovereign internet law that will allow Russia to cut …
Following the passage of a 2019 law allowing Russian Internet traffic to be isolated from the World Wide Web in case of an emergency, the country’s government has arranged to hold exercises to prepare for such a scenario at least once a year. A new posting appeared October 21 on Russia’s official government website to …
Internet isolation exercises to take place in Russia at least once every year Read More
The Russian authorities are discussing the creation of a state-run Internet traffic monitoring system that would determine precisely the viewership of web content and online advertising. These discussions were reported yesterday by business daily Vedomosti, which cited government and industry sources. Such a system would provide the content creation and advertising industries with comprehensive and …
Russian government aims to monitor Internet traffic and advertising flows Read More
This week, the television and digital network Current Time will release “Holy War,” a new miniseries by journalist Andrey Loshak about the evolution of the Russian Internet, spanning the first experiments on the Web to the rise of giant corporations, covering everything from the first startup investments to the explosion of government regulations and the arrest of …
In recent months, Russian authorities took a variety of measures targeting the Internet economy, presenting them as efforts to combat terrorism or restore the country’s digital sovereignty. However, behind these initiatives lies “a union of bureaucrats and security agents, the business aspirations of state capitalists, and the Russian authorities’ desire to control the Internet,” writes …
Behind the Kremlin’s new offensive against the Internet economy Read More
In February 2019, a Russian entrepreneur who uses Wikipedia in his work began to notice something mysterious: a relatively new user on the Russian-language version of the platform was making regular edits to political articles. While the user clearly attempted to dilute the effect of the edits by making politically neutral changes elsewhere, much of …
Alexander Zharov, the head of the telecom and Internet regulator Roskomnadzor, said in an interview with Interfax that nine VPN services may be blocked on Russian territory “within a month” if they do not comply with the federal censorship agency’s demands. Roskomnadzor contacted each of the VPN providers in question at the end of March 2019 to demand that …
It finally happened, at the beginning of May president Vladimir Putin signed a bill that seeks to establish Russia’s “internet sovereignty.” The law’s explanatory note bluntly asserts that it was prepared taking into account the aggressive nature of the U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy adopted in 2018: “Under these conditions, protective measures are necessary for ensuring the long term …
‘Sovereign Internet’ law: Why Russia could break the Internet Read More
Unsurprisingly the Russian president signed into law on May 1 a bill which aims to “ensure the safe and sustainable functioning” of the Internet in the country. The authorities say the law will defend the country against foreign aggression, serving as insurance, in case Russia’s global Internet access is shut off from abroad. Supporters of …
President Putin signs controversial “sovereign Internet” bill into law Read More
In the last seven years, the Russian government has drastically tightened its regulation of the Internet, and it has shown no signs of slowing down: on April 16, the State Duma passed a new law enabling the isolation of the Russian segment of the Internet from the World Wide Web. Opposition to the government’s onslaught …
How advocacy group Roskomsvoboda emerged in Russia to combat Internet censorship Read More
In 2018, the Internet contributed 3.9 trillion rubles ($61.1 billion) to the Russian economy — up 11% from the previous year — according to an impressive report about Russia’s Internet economy and regulation released yesterday by the Russian Association of Electronic Communications. E-commerce generated a large chunk of this income — about 1.95 trillion rubles …
In 2018, Internet contributed $61 billion to Russia’s national economy Read More
