The agency conducts regular tests to rid the Russian population of the World Wide Web.
Roskomnadzor should warn Russians about the Internet shutdown during the exercises so that they prepare for it in advance, said Yaroslav Samylin, a State Duma deputy from Novykh People.
“Information about such exercises and possible temporary restrictions in the work of the Internet should be available … to all citizens of the Russian Federation,” Samylin said (quoted by the “Parliamentary Gazette”).
According to him, this will reduce “possible inconveniences for users” who depend on the stable work of the Internet, including in their work. Samylin said that he had sent a corresponding appeal to the head of Roskomnadzor Andrei Lipov.
The day before, the media published an internal document of the Central Bank, in which the regulator informed credit organizations about possible disruptions in the work of the Web due to the exercises of Roskomnadzor. In particular, the document stated that during the exercises it would “work out a scenario of disabling access to the foreign segment of the Internet in certain regions”. The Central Bank recommended banks to inform Roskomnadzor about “technological processes” that will need to maintain connection with the world network.
Later, a representative of Roskomnadzor confirmed to RIA Novosti that the exercise will take place in December. According to him, the agency intends to test the readiness of the Russian infrastructure to ensure the availability of all services in the event of a deliberate external impact. At the same time, he assured that Internet access for users will not be restricted.
“Turning off the international Internet in certain regions is technically possible. The authorities have control over Internet providers and can introduce appropriate measures to restrict access to international resources,” Igor Bederov, Director of Investigations Department of T.Hunter, STI market expert SafeNet, told CNews.
Technically, the shutdown of the international Internet can be accomplished not only by blocking, but by configuring the routing of Internet traffic through internal Russian nodes, the expert explained. As a result, he said, users in the regions may be restricted to accessing only resources hosted on servers inside the country.
The authorities will try to isolate the Russian segment of the Internet, and this is an obvious step in the development of events, says the head of the Society for the Protection of the Internet, Mikhail Klyrev. Mikhail Klimarev. Disconnecting Russia from the Internet will mean a rupture of international economic, political and cultural ties, in essence another “iron curtain,” he believes.
Roskomnadzor conducted previous exercises to isolate the runet on July 4-5, 2023. Their results were recognized as “successful”.