Russian President Vladimir Putin’s internet guru, German Klimenko, said recently that the Russian Federation could be cut off from the internet at some point in the future if the Kremlin decides it is in its best interests. He was apparently referencing a new law being passed to guard against cyber threats from abroad.
“In the law, we are talking about the protection of critical infrastructure, which should be located in Russian territory,” Klimenko said.
“For example, hackers can penetrate the structure of commercial banks and steal money. This is bad, but if they get into the system of the Central Bank, there will be big trouble.”
“According to Mikhail Yakushev, a regional vice president at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which maintains the Web’s global domain name system, cutting off Russia from the Internet would be technologically possible only through “the destruction of every Russian power station, without exception, and criminally prosecuting anyone who still wants to use electricity,”” reports The Moscow Times.
The use and development of the Internet in Russia will continue “despite any attempts to ‘destabilize’ it, both ‘from abroad’ and ‘from within,’” arguing that Internet technologies are designed to operate with stability, regardless of “extraneous factors,” added Yakushev.
