Russia is reportedly testing its internal Internet to see if the country can function without the global Internet.
The government, in announcing the move Monday, said RuNet tests begin after Nov. 1 and recur at least annually, Defense One reported, citing an article in D-Russia that was translated.
The tests are the latest in a series of technical and policy steps aimed at allowing Moscow to cut its citizens off from the rest of the world, Defense One reported.
According to Defense One, the exercises follow April's passage of the sovereign Internet law that will require all Internet traffic in Russia to pass through official chokepoints, allowing the government to shut down outside access, block websites, and monitor traffic.
Justin Sherman, a cybersecurity policy fellow at New America who studies Internet governance and digital authoritarianism, said Russia has wanted over the past decade to have tighter control over its internal Internet.
"Free information flows are a threat to regime stability, and they need to be controlled, the narrative goes," he told Defense One.
"When Russia passed its domestic Internet bill into law, it wasn't clear how much the government would actually work to make it happen, but now it's clear they do intend to modify systems so the Internet within Russian borders can be cut off from the global net at will," Sherman added.
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