Runet, Putin's secret weapon to maintain total control of the internet
Let us imagine a house for rent in which the owner of the house had complete control over access to information, leaving the tenants blind to the world around them, unlike the rest of the neighbors, who can freely access the contents. In fact, this is what Vladimir Putin intends to do in Russia, deploy his own internet, called Runet, closing access to the global network. A plan that he has been preparing since 2014, and a movement that responds to the hybrid war that currently exists and that is no longer only unleashed with violence in the streets.
what they call a true 'world' war, given that the network is global, and making a move on it affects the cyber-sovereignty of the countries. Sacrificing the global network has some long-term benefits for Putin, but he risks a gambit move that experts agree could have catastrophic consequences.
Fernando Checa, professor at the International University of La Rioja, explains that «What Russia is doing is trying to implement an autarkic model of Internet connection. Runet could almost be called an intranet. And it means that all Russian citizens would not have access to the different services that we can have on the internet to use. And of course, that there would be an even greater control by the Russian Government in the access to the information that comes out of Runet». Coupled with the fact that those who decide to join the Russian initiative could turn Runet into the largest local network in the world.
Avoid gaps
The Russian reasons, specifies Checa, are on the one hand political and are part of the 'Digital Economy National Program', but they also respond to the fear of the Russian government, and it is not unfounded, that a situation like the one that is taking place of conflict warfare could generate cyberattacks on its infrastructures, electrical or nuclear. Having the internet window open could more easily allow cybercriminals to sneak in. «This is not new, in China the mode of connection to the network is similar. A model with its own service providers that in some way tries to emulate the contents and services of the web, but under the conditions of the government in power. Not in vain, in Russia for years the most used search engine is Yandex, not Google”, says Checa.
In addition, so that this claim of Putin could be deployed, the 'Sovereign Internet Law' was approved on November 1, 2019, which allows the connection to the world network to be turned off, and the traffic controller would become the Ministry of Telecommunications, the Roskomnadzor , which has the power to block content without prior notice or court order. The media related to Putin assured that the tests had been a success during June and July 2021, and in turn Reuters also reported it. Others, however, added nuances such as the fact that it did not get disconnected, but it did slow down Twitter.
Checa clarifies that this inaccessibility is established through a closing infrastructure, in which it is perimeter where you can go. “When we browse the internet we use the address bar to go to a server. And this can be located anywhere in the world. If you want to visit The New York Times, the user is not aware of how the requests for information are bouncing. This veto has similar attempts in Iran or North Korea, and Huawei was already proposing another internet in China in 2020, 'New IP'. Although it is about emulating what is done in the Asian giant, the difference is that in Russia the use of the Internet amounts to 85%, and the fundamental detail is that the Russian economy is one thing and the Chinese economy is another.
In addition, Checa clarifies that for years the Internet user has had a proactive role with the ability to create information. Thus, a State not only controls access to information, but at the same time has the ability to control where the content generated by citizens is being published. For the professor at the International University of La Rioja, Runet breaks the concept of an open network that has been maintained until now.
Also to reinforce this idea of control, the Kremlin is thinking about regulating the fact that a user can access through a VPN, which is a virtual private network. And it's normally the way for Russian users to get around the government blockade, but a physical control of the connection cables would make it very difficult to bypass it.
Also in Russia works VK (Vkontakte) which is the closest thing to Facebook, a Russian social network that is the most used in the country, where the contents are not free. At the other end of the spectrum is a tool of Russian origin, as widely used as WhatsApp, such as Telegram. Its creator, the Russian Pavel Dúrov, has an open conflict with the Putin government, because its creation has a very high level of security, and a State that wants to control the communications of its citizens does not particularly like it. Meanwhile, Professor Checa clarifies that in recent days Facebook or Instagram have already made moves to close access to the Russian media Sputnik or RT, which are media controlled by members close to the Kremlin.
know your enemy
In this struggle of forces to strangle Russia technologically, President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Joe Biden to cut off software updates in Russia. Checa points out that one's own experience is enough to know the amount of software that is constantly being updated, and many of these updates are automatic, and the Russians and the companies use the same software that we do. Although the Kremlin was anticipating this possibility a decade ago, imposing the obligation since 2020 that software developed in Russia be installed on any device that moves within the country. But one thing is what Ukraine asks for, and then that the sanctions at the technological level have different nuances than the economic ones.
internal issues
The problem with maintaining a network like Runet in a country as large as Russia is establishing its own infrastructure. The truth is that it is easier to connect to a global infrastructure than to create an entire infrastructure of physical data centers, because sometimes we forget that in our house we have the router that connects us to the Internet, but that information is stored in large centers of data with servers. They are computers that what they do is receive and emit information or store it. Added to this is the fact that companies also work in the cloud.
When the global internet is closed, it is not only preventing access to information, but also to the services offered by companies. And that forces us to offer them alternatives. It would practically duplicate the existence of what we now call the Internet in a small way, and from a technical point of view the work is enormous. The disengagement process has to take this into account, and companies operating in Russia are going to be burdened. However, according to Finanz.ru, there would be Russian companies such as MegaFon, Beeline or RosTelecom willing to support Putin's plan.
Another of Putin's projects, says Checa, is to try to replicate Wikipedia and eliminate content that is not in accordance with the government. And as for the next steps to censor content, it is to think not only about the connections at home, but also about mobile phone users, trying to control the conversations. The geostrategic reading of this movement, in the end, is that Putin's desire for cyber sovereignty responds to the tactic he would use if he could with his enemies: sabotage their internet connection.
