Stefan Mileschin

Then we can control people better

Word on the street is that the Tsar of all the Russias, Vladimir Putin, thinks that his empire would better off it had an internet he could control.

He is backing a move by Moscow lawmakers to create a “Sovereign Internet” that’s designed to create a single command post from which authorities can manage and, if needed, halt information flows across Russian cyberspace.

Putin is touting the initiative as a defensive response to the Trump Administration’s new cyber strategy, which permits offensive measures against Russia and other designated adversaries. But industry insiders, security experts and even senior officials say political upheaval is the bigger concern.

Andrei Soldatov, author of The Red Web: The Kremlin’s Wars on the Internet, said the law is not about foreign threats, or banning Facebook and Google, which Russia can already do legally.

“It’s about being able to cut off certain types of traffic in certain areas during times of civil unrest.”

Since winning re-election by a landslide last March, Putin’s approval ratings have sunk to multiple-year lows, dragged down by decisions to cut spending and raise taxes while wages continue to slide and consumer prices creep ever higher.

The draft law, which was co-authored by Andrei Lugovoi, the KGB veteran who’s wanted in Britain for the 2006 murder of renegade agent Alexander Litvinenko. The ultimate goal, according to Putin, is to ensure that the Runet, as the domestic internet is known, continues to function if Putin's chum Trump ever decides to launch a cyber war.

https://fudzilla.com/news/48274-puti...s-own-internet