The Russian government will be able to block the internet connection with the rest of the world starting from March 1st without any legal loopholes from other times preventing it. The Executive promulgated a regulation, Resolution 1667, which gives full powers to the telecommunications supervisory authority, Roskomnadzor, to control all traffic on the Russian network and leave operators at its absolute mercy. Behind this entity there will be no court, but agents of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the former KGB, and the law does not at any time mention the protection of the fundamental rights of its citizens.
The Internet was born and raised around the world under the premise of being a decentralized global network outside the control of governments. With this new rule, the Kremlin will subject all traffic passing through its territory to “centralized management” by the omnipresent Russian state.
The document authorizes Roskomnadzor to address all alleged “threats” looming over Runet, as the Russian part of the Internet is known. This body will consult its decisions with the FSB and the ministry that supervises the media, and will have free rein to give orders to telecommunications companies. and regulate internet traffic.
Resolution 1667 makes the censorship applied so far by the Kremlin on the Internet legal and opens the door to a total blockade of the internet. Since Moscow launched an all-out war against Ukraine, the Russian government has blocked thousands of web pages – including dozens of newspapers, including EL PAÍS –; It has slowed down YouTube to the point that it is impossible to watch a video; blocked calls via messaging services such as WhatsApp; and ordered all Telegram channel creators to install software of the Government which allows you to collect information from your subscribers.
This measure coincides with another restriction on freedom of information in the country. The government forced telecommunications companies to block the roaming and SMS arriving from abroad. Likewise, the Russian government has also experimented with temporarily blocking the internet in some regions in recent months under the guise of dealing with alleged drone attacks and sabotage.
Until now, Roskomnadzor has operated in a legal vacuum where it altered Internet traffic, while operating companies looked the other way with the use of VPN networks to bypass censorship and invented alternative services to provide their customers with access to YouTube and blocked calls. From now on Roskomnadzor will have full control and telecoms will only be able to submit their complaints to a state commission controlled by the FSB.
The new regulations plan to prosecute alleged threats such as “(citizens’) access to resources limited by Russian legislation”. In August the Kremlin passed another law making it a crime to read information about anything related to Putinism on the Internet. he declared himself an extremist. This list ranges from LGBT content to non-governmental organizations like Greenpeace and opponents like the late Alexéi Navalni.
In fact, the first known trial under this law began last week. Russian police have accused a 20-year-old young man from the Sverdlovsk region of having seen news about two military groups fighting on the Ukrainian side and which have been declared extremist by the Kremlin: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Azov Battalion. His lawyer argued that the young man accessed this information accidentally and said his operator alerted security forces.
State control of the Internet worries not only the Russian democratic opposition, but also the most ultra-ultra sectors. “All these measures make things easier for the authorities in a climate of total repression of any possible dissidence”, denounces on Telegram the group supporting the ultranationalist soldier Igor Girkin, now in prison for his criticism of the Kremlin.
“It is one of the most interesting metamorphoses of our time how this watchdog has assumed the role of hegemon over the last vestiges of freedom of information before our eyes,” he adds.
“It’s like in the movie The demolition man“, reports another Telegram channel linked to the Russian air force, FighterBomber. “Damn! How sorry I am for our descendants who will not experience that free, wild, sometimes criminal, frank, open and infinite Internet. Where you could say anything to anyone in any country (…) and they didn’t put you in prison, the only censors were your education and your conscience,” he laments.
The Kremlin’s election center, VTSIOM, also warned of the emergence of “information bubbles” in the country due to the generational divide of Russians in the face of digital censorship. According to a recent survey, 22% support using tools to bypass the block, reaching almost 40% among generations born since the 1990s.
