Communications minister drafts plan for Kremlin to take control of the Internet

Russia's Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov has prepared a report for the government that allegedly refers to the need for state control over the infrastructure of the Russian Internet.

Nikiforov will supposedly propose establishing government control over the Internet’s traffic-exchange points (the nodes that link and exchange traffic between the networks of different Internet operators). According to a source at the newspaper Vedomosti, the plan advocates real-time tracking of system malfunctions (not state censorship of online content).

One of the companies listed as vital to Nikiforov’s plan is the Coordination Center for the Top Level National Domains .RU and .PФ, which ensures the functioning of the Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure of the Russian segment of the Internet.

Nikiforov also advocates banning commercial enterprises from using communication lines across international borders. A Vedomosti source who claims to have read the report says this could prohibit websites like Yandex from using data centers abroad, insofar as the data is impossible to control, once it leaves Russia.

The government meeting where Nikiforov is expected to present his recommendations is planned for April 2. According to Vedomosti, Nikiforov’s plan was already approved at a closed meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.

Among the technical means to ensuring the RuNet’s stable operation, the report mentions the need to back up root DNS servers and IP address registries. It’s with DNS that numerical IP addresses are converted into textual website addresses. The American corporation ICANN manages the Internet’s DNS, and the Dutch organization RIPE NCC allocates and registers IP addresses.

Vedomosti

• In September 2014, the media reported rumors that Russia’s Security Council was planning to review the possibility of shutting off Russia’s Internet in certain emergency situations. When he met with the Council on October 1, Putin said the Kremlin has no plans to restrict Internet access in Russia, but promised the state would take steps to improve the security of its communication networks, in order to protect Russian sovereignty.