In what case will domestic users lose access to a foreign network. What will happen if Russia is disconnected from the general Internet?
“He once went into the forest without a gun.
- In what sense without a gun?
- Well, I mean like a bear.
- Not like a bear, but like a mammoth. But he fired from a gun.
- From a gun?
- Yes, a cherry pit.
- Cherries!
“First of all, he shot not cherries, but currants... when they flew over his house.
- The Bears?
- Well, not mammoths!
- Why then did all this grow with the Deer?
– Your Highness, allow me to go from the very beginning.
- In no case!
(dialogue from the film “That Munchausen”)
IN last days“Runet” was filled with cries that the State Duma of the Russian Federation and Putin in general (for everything bad, as usual, Putin is to blame) are going to ban the Internet in Russia.
As is usually the case, in the most different places They began to develop this topic in the spirit that Putin is afraid of the truth, that Putin is hiding the truth from the people, and in general it is necessary at the same time to prohibit Russians from looking out the window, because there you can certainly see something that will discredit the “great power.”
What really happened? I need to write a few words, otherwise many people themselves do not know how (and do not want) to look for information and separate flies from the soup, and are quite content with the “gruel with worms” that is slipped to them. The approach to food is strange, but widespread everywhere.
As one of the writers noted Soviet period Chingiz Aitmatov: “The stomach is smarter than the brain, because the stomach knows how to vomit, but the brain swallows all sorts of rubbish.”
Not just like that the first step of analysis technology is to identify facts cleared of assessments. This news is an excellent example of the topic of facts and assessments.
By typing in a search engine (Yandex) a query like “disconnecting Russia from the Internet,” and adding to this query, for example, the name news agency TASS, we can easily find the following link, which states that A bill on the autonomous operation of the Runet was introduced into the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
After spending just a couple of minutes, we find out that no one in Russia is going to turn off the Internet. We are simply talking about the fact that due to the aggressive nature of the US national cybersecurity strategy adopted in September 2018, there is a possibility that the US will cut off Russia from certain functionality that ensures the operation of the Internet, and therefore it is necessary to take a set of measures to ensure that although would be the work of Russian Internet resources in such a case.
Is not it, a big difference? It’s not “Russia wants to shut down its Internet,” but Russia is taking measures to ensure the operation of the Internet in Russia in the event of an attempt to shut down the Internet in Russia from the United States.
How can the US shut down the Internet in Russia? They can. The operation of the global Internet is ensured by material media and software resources located primarily in the United States. In particular, all the main routing mechanisms go through the USA, and the vast majority of hosting servers are located there, on which sites from all over the world are physically located.
But if sites can be created on your own material base anywhere, even at home, if you have money and space, then with the routing mechanism through which access to various Internet resources is achieved, everything is more complicated. All major web servers that perform this routing are located in the United States. Not to mention the fact that, without exception, all web servers in the world run on software also developed in the USA, and it has long been no secret that this software is by no means “neutral” and does not work in the interests of the user. Along the way, it kindly supplies the NSA and CIA complete information about all Internet users, including “private” information about their accounts. Simply put, it is a global global surveillance mechanism for everyone. Automatic collection of a complete dossier on any person and any organization. It is also no secret that this software is completely full of holes, that is, it can easily be hacked and any information stolen. In essence, we are talking about official cover for the illegal collection of information or its dissemination. Although collecting data, for example, about you personally without your consent is illegal only from your point of view (and may also be from the point of view of Russian legislation, although not always). Rest assured that it is completely legal under US law. And no one cares about the rest at all.
It is quite natural that if all the main routing mechanisms are located in the USA, then blocking access to them in the USA is easier than disrupting or completely blocking the operation of the Internet in any country in the world. This is approximately the same as turning off the electricity in your area from the relevant distribution center that supplies electricity. One turn of the switch - and the entire area in which you live is plunged into the darkness of the Stone Age: water pumps stop working, the supply of water and heating stops, all household electrical appliances and lights are turned off.
Considering that such a shutdown from the United States may well be carried out (technically undeniable, and motivation can appear at any moment), and given that the operation of the Internet today is absolutely necessary for the operation of entire sectors of the economy and social activities, then Russia’s desire to try to implement a set of measures that would at least partially offset such external influence (from the United States) is completely justified and understandable.
The TASS report, in particular, talks about the following content of the bill:
The bill provides for the creation of infrastructure to “ensure the operability of Russian Internet resources in case of impossibility of connection Russian operators connections to foreign root servers of the Internet.”
The bill defines the necessary traffic routing rules and organizes monitoring of their compliance.
In addition, cross-border communication lines and traffic exchange points are determined. “In order to ensure the sustainable functioning of the Internet, a national system for obtaining information about domain names and (or network addresses) is being created as a set of interconnected software and hardware designed to store and obtain information about network addresses in relation to domain names, including those included in the Russian national domain zone, as well as authorization when resolving domain names,” the document states.
There is a need to conduct regular exercises among government officials, telecom operators and owners of technological networks to identify threats and develop measures to restore the functionality of the Russian Internet segment.
As you can see, no bans are being introduced in Russia; on the contrary, the point is to ensure the operation of the Internet, even if they try to block its work (from the USA).
In conclusion, it should be noted that a similar situation exists in the banking sector, which also throughout the world (and in Russia in particular) is centrally controlled from the United States. For example, if you have a Visa card on which you are credited wage, and with which you pay in the store, then the information about the balance of this card is on a computer in the USA, and not in the bank that issued the card to you. And when you make purchases, the transaction request is sent to the United States, and the transaction is carried out (or not carried out) there, after which a corresponding notification is sent to the payment terminal in the store where you are.
The same is true for international payments using the SWIFT system. By the way, threats to disconnect Russia from the SWIFT system have been made more than once. For Russia, this means an immediate ban on all organizations making payments related to foreign economic activities.
As for payments between organizations within Russia, I do not have information whether the processing center is located in Russia or in the USA. But even if the processing center itself (the database and the mechanism for performing transactions) is physically located in Russia (which, generally speaking, is not obvious), then the management of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is certainly external. It’s not just that Nabiullina goes to report on her work in the United States, and not to the Government of the Russian Federation and not to the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin. The Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Nabiullina, essentially has nothing to talk about and no reason to talk to both the Government of the Russian Federation and the President of the Russian Federation. The owners of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and its bosses are an international banking system The Federal Reserve System, located physically, again, in the United States. There Nabiullina receives orders, and she goes there to report on the implementation of the orders received.
Therefore, blocking of any operations within Russia or can be carried out from the outside technically or at least organizationally. Which is exactly what is happening. The daily policy of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is nothing more than blocking operations various types- either technically or organizationally. All this is done within the framework of very specific tasks, which, for example, Khazin repeatedly spoke about in his speeches, and which include preventing investment in the Russian economy, as well as maximum outflow Money abroad. These are two main tasks. As they say, nothing personal, just business. To reduce host costs, colonies must give up their resources. And the main thing is not to develop your economy under any circumstances. Why does the United States need Russia to develop its economy? The United States does not need this, and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is an instrument controlled by the United States. Consequently, he is doing what the United States, and not Russia, needs - blocking development Russian economy. Actually, that’s why it exists in its current form. And this state of affairs, by the way, did not begin in 1991 with the collapse of the USSR, but much earlier. Currency reform Khrushchev in 1961 completely integrated the USSR structurally into the world so-called Bretton Woods system, and consent to accept the terms of this system was given by the Soviet leadership even earlier - almost immediately after the assassination of Stalin.
This means that the nationalization of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, although necessary, does not in itself guarantee that the Central Bank of the Russian Federation will work for the interests of Russia. In the USSR, the Central Bank was quite state-owned, but at the same time it worked for external interests for several decades before the collapse of the USSR. We can say that the activities of the Central Bank in this field were one of the important components thanks to which the USSR was destroyed.
This is the truth about the “bad Putin”, who is “afraid” of something, and the “good West”, which is all civilized and so wants to accept us into its welcoming embrace. In the “roaring nineties” we were practically strangled in this embrace, and if not for Putin, we would not have survived. Therefore, one should not be mistaken about this, nor should one be naive to believe in a “bright future” in the Western world. The bright future in the Western world is reserved for “insiders.” And our own are those who were born there and have always lived there. Simply put, these are Anglo-Saxons. All the rest are slaves of various levels, destined to feed the owner, and if necessary, they will gladly die for his interests. You can ask Libyans, Iraqis, Syrians, Yugoslavs, Vietnamese, Afghans and a bunch of other peoples from most countries of the world about this. Today you can ask the French or the Germans.
Our task is to do what will allow us to survive. In particular, to ensure the operation of our Internet if the United States decides to turn it off as part of the “sanctions policy.” This is what the bill submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation is aimed at. Banning freedom of speech is by no means our Russian trait. Russia as a state (and Putin in particular) does not have a single means of its own mass media. All media operating in Russia, including television, are means of US propaganda and global governance. But the United States is trying to block even the work of “Russia Today”, although this, again, is by no means a Russian state project, but a global governance project, but designed to at least partially contribute to Russia’s stability in the world, because today for global governance it is temporarily needed.
In general, this is a standard technique of the West - blaming Russia for its own crimes. Therefore, if somewhere they shout, for example, about “the bloody dictator Putin” or about the ban on freedom of speech in Russia, you should know that in fact it is the bloody totalitarian regime of the United States that is concerned about silencing all those who want to have their own opinion.
Concluding the conversation on the topic of “switching off the Internet in Russia,” I would like to add that the primitivism of this fraud is not evidence of the poverty of imagination of manipulators controlled from the United States, but of the level of outlook and understanding of what is happening in Russia that has fallen below the plinth. Such primitive substitutions only show that this, unfortunately, is quite enough for many, because their level of development makes even such a primitive level of manipulation sufficient.
As well noted by one subscriber who sent a letter today, we think that Putin’s problem is “with them” (with the Western “partners”). But in reality, the problem is with us.
If such primitive substitutions are used, this is bad sign. This means that we are so primitive that even such a primitive lie is quite enough to overcome us. Learn to work with information! This is vital today.
The other day in State Duma a bill was introduced to ensure the autonomous operation of the Russian segment of the Internet. The authors of the initiative noted that the project was prepared “taking into account the aggressive nature of the US national cybersecurity strategy adopted in September 2018.” To protect Russia, it is proposed to create an infrastructure that will ensure the operability of Russian Internet resources in the event of “the impossibility of connecting Russian telecom operators to foreign root servers of the Internet.”
This is not the first Russian initiative to strengthen its digital sovereignty. In November 2017, the Russian Security Council instructed the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and the Russian Foreign Ministry to create in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) own "system of redundant root domain name servers (DNS)", which would not depend on control international organizations ICANN, IANA and VeriSign and could serve requests from users of the BRICS countries "in case of failures or targeted impacts." Before this, in 2014, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications also conducted exercises on the stability of the Runet to external threats, Alexey Platonov, general director of the Internet Technical Center (TCI) company, told Kommersant in 2016. TCI, in particular, is involved in supporting the DNS infrastructure of the Runet .
Whose internet?
The prototype of the Internet was the ARPANET network, created by the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and connecting computers of American research centers countrywide. However, the data transfer process needed to be systematized. This was done by a team of researchers from the University of California. In October 1998, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was created. In addition to IANA's functions, the organization has worked with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to further develop protocols and architecture global network. The US government, represented by the Department of Commerce, entered into a contract with ICANN, according to which the government was given a seat on one of the corporation's committees, which allowed it to veto its decisions.
The corporation is responsible for the development of Internet standards and delegates domain registration authority to five regional Internet registrars (RIRs). The Russian segment is served by the RIPE NCC registrar with offices in Amsterdam and Dubai. It consists of national registrars who pay membership fees, form a board of directors and elect a managing director. The contract between ICANN and the US government was renewed regularly. Formally, all the actions of the Corporation were coordinated with American officials. During his last term, Barack Obama supported ICANN's intention not to enter into new contract with the government. In the fall of 2014, Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov announced the creation of duplicate infrastructure elements to improve the security of the Runet. The European Commission also called for ICANN to be internationalized.
At a meeting of BRICS leaders in Argentina, the Russian President thanked Brazil, India, China and South Africa “for their support Russian initiative…to enhance coordinated action at the UN on the topic of Internet governance and ensuring international information security", referring to the draft resolution of the UN General Assembly on global cybersecurity proposed by Russia. The Russian resolution, in particular, says: “all states must play the same role and bear equal responsibility for international management Internet, ensuring the security, uninterruption and stability of its functioning.” Russia reminds that countries need sovereignty in cyberspace to protect the rights of their own citizens, which is the responsibility of states. Secondly, for the sake of one’s own (state) security. It is risky to outsource key elements of Internet management, if only because the health of the Internet determines whether the national economy will work. Regarding cyber attacks, the difference in approaches is as follows: the United States seeks to implement international relations rules for conducting cyber warfare, while Russia’s proposals are aimed at preventing it. The American “cyber strategy” proclaims the US intention to “coerce” states, military force including “responsible behavior” in cyberspace.
Is the threat of Russia being “disconnected” from the Internet real?
The Kremlin continues to prepare the mass consciousness Russian population to the prospect of informational isolation of the country from the world.
Adviser to the President of the Russian Federation on Internet development German Klimenko for the second time since the beginning of March announced the possibility of disconnecting the country from the world Internet and promised that this process would go “unnoticed” for those who have already switched to using domestic products on the Internet.
“Those who use Yandex, Mail and Rambler will not notice at all that anything has happened,” Klimenko promised. He added that the same applies to people who “use domestic software products: for example, Russia has developed and has its own operating room mobile system. Let us recall that a week earlier Klimenko announced the technical readiness of the Russian infrastructure to disconnect from global internet.
"If tomorrow our colleagues disconnect us from the switch,<...>There are no hardware or software contraindications for us to live well and normally, even if such a war is declared on us,” he said.
According to him, Klimenko, the Russian segment of the network is already operating, which was created by presidential decree specifically for officials: “All government institutions are behind a big ‘Chinese firewall’. That’s what they scare us all with. But so far everyone is alive.”
According to the presidential adviser, difficulties will arise only for those who “hosted their domains abroad, stored their data abroad, although there is a decree to store them here.”
He recalled that back in 2010, a decree of the Russian government instructed to switch to domestic software within five years.
In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the relevant Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to try to come to an agreement with the BRICS countries on the creation of a separate Internet, independent of the existing one. To do this, it is necessary to create our own system of root domain name servers (DNS), which would “duplicate” the existing one, would be independent from the control of international organizations and would protect Russian users from “targeted influences” and “US domination,” the order said.
According to VTsIOM, the idea of a separate Internet for Russia is supported by 81% of the population. At the same time, 58% approve of creating alternative network with the BRICS countries. Another 23% believe that the best option would be an Internet completely isolated from the outside world, existing only within the borders of Russia itself.
Every fourth of those who supported this idea “difficult to answer” about the reasons for their decision. Among those who have an explanation, the majority (49%) cited that a separate Internet would “increase the level of security” in the country and become “ better protection from international hackers."
A bill on ensuring autonomous operation of the Russian segment of the Internet was submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation for consideration. In essence, they are discussing the disconnection of Russia from the world Internet. This will happen if the country is disconnected from the global infrastructure of the world Internet. This is stated in a document published on the website of the automated system for supporting legislative activities.
About the "Great Russian Firewall"
The draft of this law was submitted to the lower house of parliament by the head of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Andrei Klishas, his first deputy Lyudmila Bokova and State Duma deputy Andrei Lugovoi.
Politicians want telecom operators to minimize the amount of data transferred abroad. And they created controlled connection points for the Russian segment of the Internet to foreign networks. Such measures will provide the possibility of centralized management of traffic exchanged between Russian users when a “threat arises” from Western countries.
Disconnecting Russia from the world Internet
The authors of the bill plan to introduce a number of changes to the federal law"About communication." The reason for the changes was “the aggressive nature of the US National Cyber Security Strategy adopted in September 2018.” Parliamentarians refer to the fact that the US President declares the principle of “preserving peace by force.”
“Russia is directly and without evidence accused of committing hacker attacks, openly talks about punishment. Allegedly Russia, Iran, North Korea carried out a series of irresponsible actions that caused damage to American and international companies, our allies and partners. And they did not receive appropriate punishment. What could deter cyber attacks in the future,” follows from the explanatory note to the project.
Parliamentarians are confident that Russia “needs protective measures to ensure long-term and sustainable operation of the Internet in Russia. Increasing the reliability of Russian Internet resources."
The law defines the rules for routing traffic and organizes control over their compliance. In addition, it creates the opportunity to minimize the transfer of data exchanged by Russian users abroad.
How the new law will affect telecom operators
If the bill “on the Great Russian Firewall” is adopted, then operators and providers will have to use tools to determine the source of traffic. They will be able to limit traffic to prohibited resources not only by network address (which can be circumvented using VPN, Tor and anonymizers), but also by completely blocking outgoing traffic.
Parliamentarians propose to ensure the autonomous operation of the Russian Runet by creating a national system of DNS servers. To date, the bill has been registered and sent for consideration to the Chairman of the State Duma.
The “Great Russian Firewall” law is perhaps the most ambitious project to regulate the Internet in 2018. There is an opinion that it could be adopted by February. And start shutting down, citing the threat from Ukraine and terrorism. If the law passes, then Russia will face a new milestone in the history of the Runet. It will be characterized by a complete disconnection of the domestic digital market from the world. This is Russia's disconnection from the world Internet. Thus, the country is slowly but surely sliding towards Iran and North Korea.
Yaroslav Dubovikov, executive director of the telecom operator OTK (United Telecommunications Corporation): “It is important to understand that if the initiative is adopted and there are attempts to block foreign Internet traffic, this will also affect telephony. Many operators have already switched to IP transit of voice calls. All this will lead to blocking the transfer of data not only in the form of pictures, videos, texts, but also in the format of regular phone calls.”
A bill on creating an autonomous Internet has been introduced to the State Duma. Two points need to be noted here: a) this is just another initiative, and a terribly well-developed one at that; b) it’s still worth thinking about what an isolated RuNet will be like, because such an idea appears in the minds of legislators approximately every year.
In short: this time a group of deputies introduced a bill on creating an autonomous infrastructure Russian Internet to protect against external threats. With its help, domestic providers will be able to provide stable work RuNet, even if it is disconnected from the global network - for example, Americans. But if the external perimeter is closed, then users will not be able to connect to foreign servers. What will our Internet be like then?
Search engines
If Google and other Western search engines are banned, Russians will be left with at least two options:- Yandex - many already use it.
- “[email protected]” - only if something happens to Yandex.
Postal services
To Russian search engines included postal services: Yandex.Mail, Rambler/mail, [email protected]. The problem will only be migration from Google mailboxes with the transfer of all data, but in general, serious complications should not arise - there is a domestic alternative.Social media
“VKontakte” and “Odnoklassniki” will not escape users from Russia. “My World” from Mail.ru, the school social network “Dnevnik” and other niche projects will continue to operate. But the list of losses will be long.Some social networks on the list are not needed by humanity at all, but this is not a reason to block access to them.
