Russia wants to unplug its internet from the rest of the world.

[dalton99a]

https://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-russia-internet-20190304-story.html

Russia wants to unplug its internet from the rest of the world. Is that even possible?
By Sabra Ayres
Mar 04, 2019 | 5:00 AM | Moscow

Russian lawmakers want to tighten the screws on Russia’s internet access by creating an “sovereign” network that the Kremlin could shut off from the greater World Wide Web.

Proponents of a bill now working its way through the Russian parliament say passing the measure will protect the country’s internet from foreign cyberattacks or other threats.

But international human rights groups and opponents say the law is an attempt to create a firewall around Russia’s internet and restrict information flow. The law’s introduction has drawn comparisons to China’s restrictive Great Firewall. ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014 claimed the internet was created as a CIA project. (It was actually created by researchers at the U.S. Department of Defense.) It was the first time Putin hinted at the idea of building a purely Russian-run system to counter what the Kremlin sees as the West’s dominance in the cyber world.

[Dem2]

1. Seems like that would promote a popular idea of blocking them from accessing the USA

Seems like a dumb idea for them, but what do I know...

[NYC Liberal]

8. I mean, obviously the Russian military/spies would have access to the regular Internet.

This is to cut off the average citizen.

[PJMcK]

2. Sounds like an authoritarian move, doesn't it?

Could Trump do the same thing if he declares a national emergency over something?

[California_Republic]

23. They know all the other countries are about to screw with their

Internet like they screwed with us

[JoeOtterbein]

3. Oh Sure!

So the next time they steal our elections, they will say they are on a “sovereign” network!

Hahahahhahahaahhahahah!

[yonder]

4. Maybe they want to protect their internet by isolating it from the rest of the world

because they have developed some sort of insidious, self-replicating super virus that they are planning to use in a coordinated attack on the rest of the world??

Naaw, I say to myself as I take my tin foil hat back off.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. How are they going to troll everyone then?

[Maru Kitteh]

19. Troll farms wouldn't shut down, hell they may be even more attractive places to work

Since trolls would get to work on the "real" internet while the general public can only see the Russian one.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Putin wants his Russia Back.

Good old days of Stalinism. Notice this trend since 2009 .

[JI7]

7. he wants to cut the people of Russia off from the rest of the world

[Girard442]

9. Vlad's been smoking the same stuff Trump has.

Such a move would turn Russia into a forgotten stagnant backwater.

[Maru Kitteh]

20. Like China?

I'm betting he sees China's success and thinks he'd like to do a bit of what they're doing.

[Drunken Irishman]

28. lol but Russia already is a stagnant backwater...

[Brother Buzz]

10. The Russian mafia will bootleg it...

and Putin will get his healthy cut.

[DFW]

11. This is a tactic Putin is most familiar with

He served in the KGB in the former East Germany. East Germany permitted day visitors to East Berlin (after an hour's wait, occasional interrogations and a forced exchange of West German money for their worthless East German marks).

Before you could enter their territory, you had to surrender any newspapers or magazines you had on you in ANY language. The East Germans couldn't stop western radio or TV, as there were antennae in West Berlin, but there weren't any video recorders available to the East German public in those days, and no one could have anything they could read again at home or pass around. At restaurants and cafés in East Berlin, it was illegal for more than four people to congregate together at one table. Not only did they make sure people had nothing to read from the west, if they heard anything, they were not allowed to discuss it in public.

This is classic Soviet strategy, just adjusted for today's technology.

[BigmanPigman]

12. Yep. I am surprised he didn't do this long ago.

[DFW]

15. It's probably not an easy thing to achieve technically

Obviously he wants SOME access for SOME people, as his country is not an isolated entity economically or diplomatically, and his trouble-makers planted around the western world need secure communications with Savushinska Street, or wherever he's coordinating his mischief from these days. Selective access will necessarily be more complicated to program than a total cutoff from the rest of the world, and an accidental cutoff from world oil markets for (e.g.) Gazprom would be catastrophic for his economy. Picking and choosing whom to cut off in a country as vastly spread out s Russia won't be an easy thing to accomplish.

[BigmanPigman]

21. Putin is eveil enough to figure out a way.

[DFW]

22. He is evil enough to ask for a feasibility study

If it can be done, I'm sure he will get it done. How possible it is, I wouldn't have the slightest ides. My brother might, but if he did, he probably wouldn't be allowed to tell me, so I'd get nowhere asking him!

[Initech]

13. Great, can they get out of our internet and stay out?

[OnDoutside]

14. Seems like he is scared shitless as to retribution under a Democratic US President.And he should be.

[hunter]

16. China already does this.

But their wall leaks like a sieve.

That may be a feature, not a bug. For an authoritarian state watching the leaks is interesting.

U.S. intelligence agencies attempt to watch everything. Finding interesting data in mounds of bullshit is not a trivial problem, no matter how many supercomputers you throw at it.

[LiberalFighter]

17. I hope he does do it.

Provided Kremlin doesn't have access to the internet outside of Russia either.

[MineralMan]

18. Just another form of isolationism.

It won't work. Russia is not self-sufficient. Data needs to come and go, because of that.

This is not a practical possibility in today's world.

[Demonaut]

24. too late

[ck4829]

25. Disturbing

[Thekaspervote]

26. Can't put the toothpaste back in the tube

[Kablooie]

27. Like China.

But Chinese can still use a VPN to get out to the rest of the world if they want to.
And they have to communicate too do business with other countries.
I have a friend in China who I'm able to keep in touch with on Facebook through her VPN.