Kremlin: Sovereign Internet Act was forced on Russian by the West
Russia had to adopt the law on “autonomous Internet” because of the cyber threats from the West, said Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev.
“We are not speaking about restricting the work of the World Wide Web. Russia is not going to disconnect itself. Nevertheless, there is a threat that external forces may disconnect Russia from the Internet,” Patrushev said in an interview with Izvestia.
“It is necessary to create an infrastructure that would allow us to ensure the operability of Russian Internet resources so that our citizens can use the Internet even if domestic operators have problems connecting to foreign servers or if there is a targeted large-scale external influence,” Patrushev said.
According to him, the adoption of this law was “forced on [Russia] to counter the doctrine of “maintaining peace by force declared in the National Cyber Security Strategy of the United States”. “Unfortunately, such an aggressive approach is practiced not only by Washington but also by its closest allies. The threat of British Prime Minister Theresa May to subject our country to cyber-attacks is a clear confirmation of it,” Patrushev added.
“Russia should be ready to protect national interests in the information sphere, as well as the interests of its citizens. Therefore, attempts to present the initiative of legislators in the form of a prohibitive measure aimed at isolating our state do not reflect its essence,” the Security Council Secretary stressed.
The bill on Runet (Russian Internet) was adopted by the State Duma in February in the first reading.