Lawmakers back bill to isolate Russian internet

Lawmakers on Tuesday backed a bill that could cut off Russia’s internet traffic from foreign servers, a move critics say is a step towards censorship and possibly an isolated network like in North Korea.

The bill passed its first reading by 334 votes to 47.

Authors of the initiative say Russia must ensure the security of its networks after President Trump unveiled a new American cyber security strategy last year that said Russia had carried out cyber attacks with impunity.

The bill aims to put in place “defence mechanisms to ensure the long-term stable functioning of internet networks in Russia” if the US takes action in cyberspace to threaten them. It proposes creating a centre to “ensure and control the routing of internet traffic” and would require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to install “technical measures to withstand threats”.

Internet freedom activists say the bill is another censorship bid following previous efforts in Russia to control global social networking platforms and block the Telegram messenger service. Though the bill claims to address external threats, it would just be another law that “permits limiting rights and freedoms on the internet” in Russia, said Artyom Kozlyuk, who heads Roskomsvoboda, a group that campaigns against internet regulation. He believes measures outlined in the bill could cost more than 100 billion rubles ($1.5 billion) per year, from both public and private coffers.

The authors of the bill were unable to estimate the long-term costs, say what threats it would repel or even explain how it would work. The vagueness of the proposal sparked exasperation from some lawmakers.

“How can we vote for a bill we don’t understand?” said Valery Gartung of the leftwing Just Russia party. One of the bill’s authors dismissed the criticism, citing the threat from US.

“All of the websites in Syria” have been turned off by the US before, claimed Andrei Lugovoi, one of the suspects in the 2006 murder of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko. If passed, the law could make it possible to cut Russia off from the global web, or to initiate an internet blackout in a region if it is rocked by unrest or opposition, said Andrei Soldatov, who co-authored a book on internet surveillance in Russia. “This is serious,” he said.