Russia successfully disconnected from the worldwide internet

This Monday, the Russian government announced that it executed multiple tests during which the country has been disconnected from the worldwide Internet successfully. The tests was concluded over several days, starting last week, and included Russian government agencies, local internet service providers and local Russian internet companies. The objective was to test if the country’s national infrastructure which is known as inside Russia as RuNet, could work without access to the global DNS system and the external internet.

At the very moment, the public will have to take the government’s word for it as no technical data has been released to the public. Government officials mentioned that a number of disconnection scenarios were tested, including a hostile cyber-attack scenario from a theoretical foreign power. Alexei Sokolov, deputy head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media, later on said that the outcomes of the successful test would be presented to President Vladimir Putin next year. Sokolov further resumed the success of the test as,

“It turned out that, in general, that both authorities and telecom operators are ready to effectively respond to possible risks and threats and ensure the functioning of the Internet and the unified telecommunication network in Russia,”

While the law is considered by Russian lawmakers to better secure the nation against cyber-attacks be they from foreign powers or otherwise, many human rights experts have raised concerns. Human Rights Watch further argued that,

“The bill contravenes standards on freedom of expression and privacy protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), to which Russia is a party. Both treaties allow states to limit freedoms to protect national security but impose clear criteria for such limitations to be valid. The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, commenting on the ICCPR, has reiterated that these limits should be “provided by law, which is clear and accessible to everyone,” and is predictable and transparent.”