Putin wants to be able to close the Internet – Hufvudstadsbladet

 Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin wants to control the information disseminated on the Internet. AFP / LehtikuvaPrint / Mikhail Klimentiev

The Kremlin put tighter reins on the independent media. The following steps may be to isolate Russia from the internet.

Putin Russia plans to strengthen its control over the independent Russian domains and isolating the Russian network from the global Internet. In an emergency – such as large demonstrations or a military confrontation –

The Kremlin wants to have the ability to extinguish the contacts abroad altogether.

– It is discussed that completely break the links between Russia and the global Internet, so that no data traffic would be conveyed from here abroad, writes technology blogger Anton Nossik according to the Moscow Times.

Putin has expressed his skepticism about the Internet before, in April, he called internet for a “CIA project” and suggested that Russia is developing its own internet. According to Vedomosti, the Russian Security Council tomorrow to discuss a range of new

measures that go even further.

– I do not believe that the Russian authorities would actually turn connected to the Internet. But these measures are a step toward developing a siege mentality, says Andrei Soldatov , an expert on Russian intelligence, to the Guardian.

It sounds like an impossible task to isolate the digital the flow of information. But it would technically be possible to implement.

– We have very few Internet exchanges and all controlled by national operators such as state-owned Rostelecom, which is the government very close, says Soldatov to the Moscow Times.

Want to take over the top domains

Russia also plans to take control of the Russian TLDs .ru, .su and .рф which is currently controlled by an independent organization. Measures provide stronger Kremlin control over the flow of information online.

– The next step may be to force all sites within the top level domain .ru be based in Russia, said Soldatov, whose own site Agentura.ru is based in Germany .

The Kremlin has been hard on the independent media during Putin’s time and all the television stations and most newspapers are under government control. Therefore, news sites and blogs have played an important role in spreading dissent in Russia.

But now Putin has gradually tightened controls over the internet.

This week bought oligarch Alisher Usmanov that is Putin close up Vkontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook.

The Kremlin has been suspected that social media serves as a kind of contacts for dissidents who organizes anti-government demonstrations.

– In Russia, this was inevitable, but I’m glad we held out for seven and a half years, blogged Vkontaktes founder Pavel Durov earlier.

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