Month: March 2019

The reasoning is unclear – I can’t imagine any temporary event that could cause them to flick the switch. But perhaps they have read this site, and figure they are going to go it alone one day 😉

In the next two weeks, Russia is planning to attempt something no other country has tried before. It’s going to test whether it can disconnect from the rest of the world electronically while keeping the internet running for its citizens. This means it will have to reroute all its data internally, rather than relying on servers abroad.

The test is key to a proposed “sovereign internet” law currently working its way through Russia’s government. It looks likely to be eventually voted through and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, though it has stalled in parliament for now.
Technology Review

Sometime before April, the Russian government plans to briefly disconnect the entire country from the internet.
https://futurism.com/russia-internet-security-test

This is a defensive approach, a response to any potential cyber attack. But it could be used for the opposite reason, now that the switch is in place.

They are already close to being on their own: The Russian government announced in 2017 that it would handle up to 95 percent of all internet traffic locally — that is, independent from the rest of the world — by 2020.