Russia: they exhibit Kremlin failures when trying to control the internet

Long before launching a war against UkrainePresident Vladimir Putin was working to turn the Russian internet into a powerful tool for espionage and social control similar to the so-called Great Firewall of China.

So when Western tech companies started breaking off their ties with Russia after their invasion, Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov became alarmed. He had spent years denouncing the censorship of Moscow and feared that these well-intentioned efforts to support Ukraine rather they will help Putin isolate the Russians from the free flow of information, aiding the Kremlin’s propaganda war.

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“The only place the Russians have to talk about Ukraineand what happens in Russiait’s Facebook”, Soldatov, who is now in exile in London, wrote on that social network during the first week of the armed conflict. “They can’t take away our access just like that.”

Facebook didn’t, but the Kremlin soon got on board, stifling Facebook and Twitter so much that they are now effectively inaccessible from the Russian internet. Putin has also blocked access to the Western press and the country’s independent news sites, and a new law criminalizes spreading information that contradicts the government line. Moscow said on Friday that it would also restrict access to Instagram.

However, the Kremlin’s most recent censorship efforts have also exposed major failures in the government’s large-scale plans to control the internet. Any Russian with a modicum of technological knowledge can evade attempts to Moscow to deprive its population of knowledge of the facts.

That puts broadband and related service providers who sympathize with Ukraine and his ordeal. On the one hand, they face public pressure to punish the Russian state and economic reasons to limit their services at a time when people may not pay for service. On the other, they fear helping to hinder the free flow of information that could counter Kremlin disinformation, such as government claims that the Russian military “is releasing” heroically to the people Ukrainenot fascism.

Amazon Web Services, a major cloud service provider, continues to operate in Russia, although it says that it is not accepting new clients in that country. Both Cloudfare, which helps protect websites from blocking attacks and malware, and Akamai, which boosts website performance by bringing content closer to your audience, also continue to serve consumers on Russiawith some exceptions, since it was cut off from parastatal companies and sanctioned companies.

In contrast, Microsoft has not reported whether it will suspend its cloud services in the country, although it has already ended the sale of products and services.

Cogent, a company based in United States which provides a major backbone for internet traffic, has severed its direct connections within Russia, but left avenues open through subsidiaries of Russian network providers with physical facilities outside the country. US-based Lumen, which offers similar services, has done the same.

“We have no desire to isolate Russian individuals and believe that an open internet is crucial for the world.”Cogent CEO Dave Schaeffer said in an interview. Direct connections to servers within Russiahe clarified, they could “be used for cyber offensives by the Russian government.”

Schaeffer commented that the decision did not reflect “financial considerations”although he acknowledged that the sharp collapse of the ruble, which causes it to rise in Russia the price of imported products and services could make it difficult to collect payments from their consumers. Meanwhile, Cogent is providing free services to its Ukrainian clients during the conflict.

Schaeffer said that these measures could affect the transmission of videos over the Internet in Russiabut will leave enough bandwidth available for smaller files.

Other backbone providers in Europe and Asia continue to serve Russia, a broadband importer, said Doug Madory, director of internet analytics for network management company Kentik. He hasn’t noticed a significant drop in connectivity from third-party providers.

Cloudfare continues to operate four data centers in Russia even though Russian authorities have ordered government sites to stop working with foreign web hosting providers starting Friday. In a March 7 blog post, the company said it had determined that “Russia you need more internet access, not less.”

According to the law of “sovereign internet” of 2019, Russia it was supposed to be able to operate its internet independently of the rest of the world. In practice, that has brought the country closer to the kind of intense internet monitoring and control practiced in China and Iran.

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Source: Elcomercio

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