Translated material
The Kremlin is talking about a cyber attack in the United States against a “troll factory”: to protect against such cases, a “sovereign Internet” is needed
Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said that “it is certainly possible” to influence the Internet of Russia from the territory of the United States. To protect against illegal actions on the part of the American side, according to him, a bill on the "sovereign Internet" is needed, writes . Interfax
“If we say, let's say, in general, then this, probably, framework administration of the worldwide Internet network is carried out de facto by several companies. Based on this, based on such potential threats, it is precisely [in Russia] that legislative activity is carried out aimed at the adoption of bills - the so-called bill on the sovereign Internet," Peskov said.
The discussion of protection against threats on the Internet was caused by an article in the American newspaper The Washington Post, which, citing sources, announced an operation by the US Armed Forces Cyber Command against the St. Petersburg company Internet Research Agency (ARI).
The operation, according to the publication, was carried out on the day of the US midterm elections in November 2018. Its goal was "to prevent Russians from starting to send messages on social networks that cast doubt on the results of the elections," WP reported. According to the newspaper's sources, the attack on the AI was "part of the first offensive cyber campaign against Russia" and was sanctioned by US President Donald Trump.
Commenting on the message of the American media, Peskov said that he did not know the degree of reliability of the published data, since they were "impersonal." At the same time, he stated that cyber attacks on various Russian organizations, against legal entities and individuals are “constantly” carried out from the territory of the United States.
"AII" (known as the "troll factory") is associated with Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. In the United States, the organization is accused of interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
Last fall, The New York Times reported that the US Cyber Command conducted another operation against the "trolls". After that, according to the newspaper, the AII began an internal check of a possible leak of information.
In December 2018, a month after the US cyber operation in November, a group of Russian senators led by Andrey Klishas submitted to the State Duma a bill on the “sovereign Internet”, which involves the creation of infrastructure in case the country is disconnected from the Internet under sanctions. In February 2019, it was adopted on first reading.