Russia Is Considering An Experiment To Disconnect From The Internet

The bill, co-authored by Andrei Lugovoi - one of the main suspects in the 2006 murder of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in the United Kingdom - passed its first reading in the lower house of parliament on Tuesday by 334 votes to 47.

The bill is meant to better position the country to fend off potential cyberattacks from overseas, particularly from the United States, the legislature said in a statement.

Occasionally countries disconnect themselves by accident - Mauritania was left offline for two days in 2018 after the undersea fibre cable that supplied its internet was cut, possibly by a trawler.

A draft law called the Digital Economy National Program was introduced to parliament previous year that would force all state internet providers to re-route internet traffic through exchange points managed by Russia's telecommunications regulator, Roskomndazor.

According to ZDNet, ISPs across the country are concerned that the new law's implementation could cause a "major disruption".

Russian Federation and its main internet providers may be planning to disconnect the country from the internet.

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Russian Federation is reportedly planning to run a national test on its own infrastructure as part of an effort to "unplug" from the internet.

According to BBC, this massive exercise is slated to take place before 1st April 2019; however, no exact date has been announced.

Putin has repeatedly said that it is hard to control the Internet, but the bill has added to concerns that the Kremlin is trying to do just that in hopes of muffling dissent in what could be his final presidential term.

Local media outlets have reported that some providers are largely in favour of the legislation, as the state has agreed to give out cash in exchange for proof that such a system could be established. It requires Russian ISPs to make sure they can still operate in case another country tries to isolate Russia online. After all, Roskomnadzor, which could come to control all internet traffic within Russian Federation under the new law, has become known in recent years for cracking down on Kremlin critics.

Russian Federation meddled in the 2016 US presidential election - with the use of its troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency - as a way to sow division in America and boost the candidacy of Donald Trump.

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