In Russia, access to the Internet must be preserved so that residents of the country can receive independent information. This was stated by U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price at a department briefing.
“We urged intermediaries around the world not to disconnect Russia from the Internet so that information continues to reach the country, and the Internet remains free and open inside Russia itself,” he said.
Price also noted that the United States would support journalists in Russia, whose work has become more difficult since the war began.
Earlier, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said there is a need to ensure Russians have independent news in the context of the war in Ukraine. She stressed that the service does not intend to leave Russia.
As reported in February, Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said that “the key rights to govern” the Internet are in the United States, therefore Russia could be disconnected from the global network. To protect against such a scenario, according to Medvedev, the country enacted the “sovereign Runet” law.
On March 5, a telegram addressed to federal executive authorities and the regions of the Russian Federation, signed by Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Andrey Chernenko, containing a number of recommendations for protecting the country’s information infrastructure, was circulated. It did not contain direct directives to disconnect Russian users from the global network; however, a number of experts saw in it indirect prerequisites for Runet isolation.
In mid-April it emerged that Roskomnadzor plans to increase the throughput of equipment with a deep packet inspection function used to implement the ‘sovereign Runet’ law.