Russia is going offline. It will completely disconnect from the Internet

Can you imagine a whole country going completely offline? Does it sound absolutely crazy to you? You might be right. What reason could be behind it, and what is the danger?
Since 2019, Russia has been trying to cut itself off from the global Internet and it looks like it might actually happen. Why? The first and most important reason is to better control the flow of information into the country. It may be perceived as suppressing free speech or maybe attempting to have better security, but in any case, creating a completely new DNS system is a truly grandiose act.
What can it actually gain from this?

Benefits of disconnecting from the Internet

Protection from cyberattacks

According to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernenko, the official goal is to protect Russia from external cyberattacks. In the 21st century, cyberattacks against governments and private companies are more and more common. If you are a website owner, you have probably experienced at least one DDoS attack (learn more about DDoS attacks).

By the way, if you need DDoS protection, Neterra can give you a hand.

Only government-controlled information is spread

If you control the Internet in a country, you control the narrative. You can allow only state-controlled news agencies to spread information across the country. This will stop freedom of speech and allow only one “official” source of information.

Putting a stop to different thinkers from getting information

By allowing only certain types of news and blocking all the “different” thinkers, Russia aims to have complete control over the information. That way, even if Russian citizens want to get information from abroad, they won’t have access to it. A complete informational blackout.

Stopping activists from making plans using digital tools

If people can’t use any encrypted application in the country, they won’t be able to communicate with each other without governmental control. If they can’t promote a protest, people won’t know when, where, how and why a protest will happen. Less organized people are less of a threat to the state.

Outsiders won’t be able to get accurate information about Russia

Information can be stopped from not only getting into the country but also getting out. That way, Western countries won’t be able to get accurate information about the situation in Russia. That is another great security benefit for Russia.

Wait, didn’t the world cut off Russia from the global Internet already?

No. There were many pleas from the government of Ukraine, after the conflict in 2022 started, to disconnect Russia from the Internet, but it didn’t happen. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the organization that manages the highest level of the DNS system, refused to do it (See ICANN’s answer here). According to ICANN, cutting Russia off the global Internet will only accelerate the separation process, and will not be useful to the world. At the same time, doing so would completely cut off Russian citizens living in Russia from global news sites, and communicating with the West. It could be seen as the Iron curtain of the 21st century.
And not only that but cutting one country off the global Internet will create a precedent that other countries could see as a threat. If one country can be removed, then other countries can be removed too. ICANN couldn’t do it if it wants the Internet to continue to be one global network. Imagine if each country creates its own Internet. That would be a nightmare for international networking.

Even without ICANN, Russia felt separated from the rest of the digital world. Many Western companies left its market in 2022 and now, multiple popular sites can’t be accessed from the territory of Russia. That includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and almost every news agency from the West.

Let’s get back to the topic, did Russia create its Internet already?

Russia’s “Sovereign Internet”

We first wrote about the topic in 2019, when Russia did its first trial to disconnect from the Internet.
Disconnecting from the Internet is part of Russia’s Digital Economy National Program law. In this document, the Russian government requires the ISPs on the territory of Russia, to be able to provide local-only service (Runet) in case of foreign country attempts to stop Russia’s Internet.

This sounds like a good security measure, especially when we think about how many of our communications happen through the Internet. In the 21st century, without the Internet, everything stops functioning properly, so this decision could be seen as a backup on a massive scale.

For this purpose, Russia claims that it has created its own network of DNS servers around the country. According to the Russian government, the goal was that 95% of all the traffic should be local by 2020. The final goal is that Russians will be able to visit just sites on the Runet, the Internet of Russia.

The state also banned multiple VPN providers. As of 2021, the list of banned VPN companies includes 15 already. Even the use of the Tor browser got blocked in December 2021.

Russia will also monitor and filter all the passing traffic, but to what extent is still unknown.

NATO and the allies of the country strongly disagreed with this action. This action severely damaged the democracy in the country by limiting the information that its people could access. The same goes for outgoing information; freedom of speech could be in jeopardy.

Russia still hasn’t completely pulled the plug yet. It just prepared itself to do it, in case it decided to act. That means that the country already has a fork of the root DNS. In the future, a DNS query coming from Russia can be answered with a different A record (IP address) than the same from another country. It could get messy very fast.

Getting deeper into Russia’s disconnecting from the global Internet

The process is happening on five levels, and each has its challenges.

Domains

As we mentioned before, Russia has created its own DNS, (according to their press releases, and not confirmed by Western companies)an address book with the tables of domains and their IP addresses (read more about DNS here). With this action, the government can still provide a service similar to the traditional Internet, but local and managed by the Runet.

Cross-border traffic

As you can imagine, there are a lot of Internet cables across the whole world. Contrary to popular belief, the cloud is not in the sky, it is inside data centers. Big rooms full of servers.
There are such cables that pass information inside Russia. The cables are managed by so-called Autonomous Systems, which connect to each other and exchange data. Those exchange points that are currently inside the territory of Russia, can be stopped at any time if the Kremlin orders. You can see it as Internet kill switches that can turn on or off the Internet in the country.

Applications

The RU government has already blocked multiple applications inside its country. That includes the previously mentioned Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, VPN services, and many more.
The authorities in the country use middle boxes – devices that analyze the traffic and discard traffic related to banned applications. They do it by using a tech called deep package inspection.

Cloud services

Many cloud services, that are a part of the infrastructure of most modern sites are blocked in Russia. Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud all have limited their activities in the country. The same goes for many more services. And as you may already know, almost all Western banking services have already ceased working within the territory of the Russian Federation.

Content

Content is strongly limited. The Kremlin administrates the news in the country and has pushed a law about “fake news”. Anyone who spreads content that hasn’t been approved by the government can expect a jail sentence. This has massively impacted and limited the freedom of speech in the country.

Is Russia alone in this endeavor?

Are there other countries that are disconnecting from the global Internet?

North Korea

Another country that is completely disconnected is North Korea and which is not a great example. It is a country way behind the rest of the world when it comes to economy and technology. Only a few people, I.e., the country’s elite, has access the world wide web.

China

China has the so-called Great Firewall, a firewall that limits traffic. It is a tool for censorship that blocks access to foreign sites. If you are in China, forget using Google, Facebook, Twitter, or even Wikipedia. These are all blacklisted. The Great Firewall is an advanced system that can analyze traffic, find sensitive keywords, and block the connection.
You can go around it with a VPN, but you might have problems with the law, or the speed of the connection can be very low.

Iran

Iran also has methods to completely stop its Internet when it wants. It has been used on different occasions during some of the multiple public protests. Suppressing communication inside a country can really stop protesters from organizing.

The USA

There was a similar idea in the United States back in 2008. Bill Woodcock suggested a “kill switch” that can disconnect the States if needed. It seems that the plan was abandoned, but the USA might try it again in the future.

So, what will happen next with the Russian Internet?

Both sides – Russia and the rest of the world – can do a lot more to separate from each other. But do they want to do it? Most probably not. Not even Russia wants to be completely outside of the world wide web. In the 21st century, not having the Internet and being disconnected from the rest of the world could be devastating and the Kremlin does not want that to happen.

There is no clear patch on how Russia will interact with the rest of the world after what happened in 2022. Things can’t really go back to how it was before. A country, 100% separate from the world seems hard to believe, and yet it is possible.