Why is Russia trying to disconnect itself from the global internet?
Recently, the government of Russia conducted a large-scale experiment to test if it can survive and sustain without the World Wide Web. Meanwhile, this attempt has stoked up fears among the citizens who can be deprived of the global internet access anytime soon.
However, it is a matter of concern not only for the Russians but also for the rest of the world that why the officials of the country are planning to curtail the flow of information to and from foreign countries?
Well, according to reports, the test has been conducted on the orders of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin with an aim to assess the internet capabilities of the country to see if it could continue to function in case it cuts off from global internet.
According to experts, the tests were run to prepare for an information blackout in case of a potential domestic political crisis.
Surprisingly, the government of Russia is working on this project for quite a few time and confirming this statement, the Russian newspaper RBK has reported that a similar test was conducted back in July last year to cut Russia from the World Wide Web.
The Defense and Interior Ministries of Russia are working together for this reason in collaboration with the telecom operators of the country.
An important reason behind this whole series of experiments lies in the fear of Western countries who are known for using the internet as an instrument to spy and ultimately influence the rest of the countries.
As we have seen in the past that the president of Russia remained very concerned on the issue while labeling the internet as “CIA special project”. Accordingly, he actually took some initiatives to ensure that the data of internet users in the country would be provided to Russian Data Centers backed by the government in order to tighten the law and order situation.
Moreover, the initiative to introduce country’s own Search Engine ‘Sputnik’ as well as plans to plans come up with an alternative version of Wikipedia is the clear cut indication of the fact that Russian government takes the cyber space very serious matter and so wants to enhance control over it.
Taking into account such dedicated efforts, it seems like the government of Russia will soon take off the shackles of global internet in an effort to protect itself from the online realm of threats from the West.
It is pertinent to mention here that rest of the countries of the world like Iran, India, Turkey and even Pakistan came up with efforts to introduce local versions of search engines etc. and the reasons were apparently same. However, these efforts were mostly found to be originated by the local internet users instead of the governmental level.