Not a day goes by without hearing that Russia wants to nationalize the Internet, fragment the Internet or block its citizens’ access to the global Internet. Just yesterday, media sources announced that Russia will be testing its Internet shut down capabilities, which is a rather inaccurate account of Russia’s move towards nationalizing the Internet.
In this timely white paper, Ilona Stadnik provides what these Internet analysts really need: a realistic and in depth analysis of what is happening to the Internet in Russia. This paper is particularly important for advocates of global, interconnected Internet. The Internet community gets involved and even contributes to the hype by predicting what would happen next. But the process of nationalization of the Internet is not a hype. It is a slowly evolving, not so well thought-out process that faces constant trial and error. The danger of such a process should be acknowledged, however. It is going to take time for Russia to nationalize its Internet, align it to its border and even perhaps fragment it. But it will not happen tomorrow by switching the Internet off. In this paper Stadnik tells us how it might have been happening and where it might be going.
