The Russian government is dictating which websites citizens may access and which they may not. To that end, the authorities are deploying sophisticated network filters that approve or block access to individual sites at the level of infrastructure. Unwanted websites are therefore no longer accessible within a given region via any local provider. The technology behind the system is familiar from other authoritarian states, including China and Iran, where the internet has long been reshaped into a form of national intranet. Russia appears to be pursuing the same objective. The government decides and controls what users are permitted to see.
In Moscow, the filters have recently entered a testing phase. Since 6 March, mobile internet in the capital has been intermittently disrupted. In recent days, residents of the city – home to around 13 million people – have at times been unable to pay bills, order a taxi or send messages to colleagues via mobile networks. The transition to the new system is complex and has required temporary shutdowns of network access. Some areas of the city remain offline.
A real dystopia
‘If you ask us how long these measures will remain in place, then for as long as new measures are required to ensure the security of our citizens,’ said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Citizens, he added, could be certain that safeguarding security remained the highest priority.
The English edition of El País remarked that the phrasing was worthy of a dystopian novel. The description is not misplaced. Residents of St Petersburg were also informed this week that mobile networks there would be shut down. The official explanation is that the measure is intended to protect against Ukrainian drone attacks, which are said to use mobile towers for navigation. The same justification has been cited for months across Russia in connection with network restrictions.
