Russia Is ‘Ready’ to Disconnect from Global Internet, Medvedev Says

Russia is “legally and technologically” ready to disconnect from the global internet if needed, former President Dmitry Medvedev told Interfax Monday.

Russian authorities have long flirted with the notion of tougher restrictions and control over the internet on Russian territory. While the country’s “sovereign internet” law passed in 2019 gives Russia the ability to cut itself off from the rest of the World Wide Web, experts have expressed doubts that Russia was capable of implementing such technology.

While Medvedev said Russia is capable of isolating its internet from the global web, he stressed that he didn’t see any reason to do so, calling it a “double-edged weapon.”

Medvedev, who is currently deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said that the U.S. retains “key rights of control” to the internet which could result in Russia being disconnected from the global internet “if something extraordinary happens.” Pointing to another example, he also said Russia could also be disconnected from the SWIFT international payment system. 

“We even had to create our own system for transmitting information so that we can exchange electronic messages if this suddenly happens,” he said.

Medvedev’s statement comes on the heels of mass protests that swept more than 100 Russian cities over the past two weekends. The rallies were sparked by the detention of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and the release of his “Putin’s Palace” investigation which drew over 100 million views on YouTube. Last week, Russia’s communications regulator said it would fine seven social media companies for not taking down videos promoting the protests.

(c) The Moscow Times

32 comments

  1. If Russia could do either of these things, they would have done them by now. Countries don’t announce to the world what they are going to do, or not going to do, they do it.

  2. If mafia land was to really disconnect from the www, how could all the businesses do international and national business? Surely, they lack the know-how and the gear to make their own. For certain, then the young people would REALLY be pissed off.
    But, as always, mafia land loves to blow hot air. This reminds me of its supposed super-duper, hyper-diaper weapons that exist only in their empty, alcohol-soaked skulls.

      • Just one little example of the disaster they would bring upon themselves. Not that I would care.

  3. Ha, maybe they are shitting their pants about the retaliation that is coming for the Solar Winds hack.
    News for them,If the United States want to infiltrate and infect a machine, to command and control, you don’t need a lot of bandwidth. You could have a cross-border cell phone to get on the internal internet of the country. For that matter, you could have people inside the country, which all major states do, to enable cyber warfare.”

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