Russia working to transform russian segment of the Internet into state-controlled infrastructure

The authorities of russia, the aggressor state, are working on a set of measures aimed at transforming the russian segment of the global Internet into an infrastructure fully controlled by the state. It was reported by the Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS) of Ukraine.

According to the FIS, the russian Ministry of Digital Development is developing initiatives that will lead to a gradual economic and licensing stranglehold, which ordinary users will experience incrementally.

The central initiative of these measures is the introduction of fees for international internet traffic for mobile subscribers. A price of USD 2 per gigabyte of traffic is being discussed. This is being presented to russians as a change in the tariff model, but the true goal of the initiative is to make the use of VPN services financially unprofitable, since all traffic passing through them can be classified as international.

Russian authorities are also pushing for the licensing of telecommunications operators. The current 17 types of licenses are planned to be reduced to three. A basic license will require initial capital of at least USD 66,000, while a general license will require over USD 1.3 million. Currently, the minimum authorized capital for such companies in russia is USD 143.

The FIS notes that this will have catastrophic consequences for the market, as only a small fraction of the 4,200 active operators will be able to meet the new requirements. Over 90% of small providers — including internet companies, cable TV providers, and regional operators — could face the threat of liquidation or takeover. This would effectively result in them coming under state control.

The russian government is also discussing a ban on the provision of telecommunications services by individual entrepreneurs and companies that have not established a system for operational and investigative measures. This system provides the Federal Security Service of the russian federation with direct access to subscriber traffic and data.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on March 30, Forbes wrote that russia may introduce paid limits on the use of VPN services in the near future.

We also reported that russian authorities continue to block internet access under the pretext of ensuring security and combating Ukrainian drones. At the same time, they are testing the implementation of “whitelists” of websites that will remain accessible even during outages.