From the 2019the Russia He is working on aNational Internet network infrastructure call Runeta term that merges “RU” (code for the Russian language) with “Network”, with the aim of making the country independent of the global internet network and to strengthen control over the information circulating online. This project, often compared to Great Chinese firewall or al North Korea intranet modelaims to channel web traffic through state -controlled nodes and implement advanced filtering and surveillance systems. To date, the total disconnection of Russia from the global internet has not yet occurred, and the country continues to depend on a large extent from foreign technologies and infrastructures.
This does not mean that control over the network has not increased: in recent years, Moscow has blocked or limited access to western platforms such as Facebook And X and, news of these days, has intensified the restrictions on the use of VPN (Virtual Private Network), used by Russian Internet users to get around the blocks. Despite these efforts, the total disconnection from the global Internet has not yet happened, even if it could potentially materialize in the coming years.
What is Runet, when he was born and what point is Russia’s Internet
The idea of a “Sovereign internet“It was not born with the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but developed in previous years with the approval of laws that aim to Make the Russian web more autonomous. The legislation that laid the bases of runet is in this case the Federal law of 1 May 2019 n 90-Fzentered into force the November 1st of the same year. This rule introduced a series of measures with the aim of instracting data traffic through exchange points controlled by the State and has imposed telecommunications operators to install equipment for in -depth analysis of data packages, technology DPI (Deep Packet Inspection). This system allows you to filter and censor the contents, identifying sender and recipient even if communications are encrypted. It is not just a selective blocking mechanism, such as the Chinese one, but a potential tool to disconnect Russia from the global network and operate the internet only within the country.
Although some observers have hypothesized that Moscow could isolate themselves completely already in March 2022this did not happen, as the reality of things is much more complex than it seems. Although not having interrupted the connection with the outside, however, the Kremlin has increased the controls and limited access to western content. Platforms like Facebook and X have been obscured. Google was also targeted, with an exponential increase in requests for removal of content from its services. According to the Google Transparency Reportonly in the first half of the 2021 Russia has presented almost 19,000 requests to eliminate over 200,000 content.
At the same time, the Russian authorities have intensified the restrictions on the VPNs, tools that allow you to circumvent the censorship by masking the origin of data traffic. Starting from March 2025the Russian regulator Roskomnadzor imposed the Removal of numerous VPN applications from the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Storebringing about 200 VPN services already blocked in the country. In addition, some Cloudflare sottores – an important infrastructure that supports the functioning of many websites – have been temporarily made inaccessible in different areas of Russia.
The difficulties in creating a 100% “sovereign internet” network
Despite the efforts made by the Moscow authorities for Create a “sovereign internet” networkthe complete disconnection from the global network presents significant technical challenges. As explained by the IT security expert Marco Ramillidigital independence would require many efforts and compromises. In fact, Ramilli said:
Leaving the internet would impose the need not to update more operating systems, routers, software or more generally all technology from other nations. In order to be totally independent, it is necessary to prepare an internal production chain of technology that knows how to put existing software and hardware and hardware.
At the moment, Russia does not have industrial skills to completely replace western technologies, which makes it difficult to separate clear and immediate separation. The government is working to strengthen its digital infrastructure, with the development of a national system of domain names or DNS (Domain Name System) which would allow Russian sites to maintain operational even in the event of isolation from the global network.
The implementation of runets and the restrictions imposed by the Russian government fit into a wider phenomenon known as SPLiternetor the fragmentation of the Internet in separate networks according to national policies. Countries like China, Iran and Russia are creating their own internet versionslimiting access to external content and strengthening internal information on information. This process questioned the original model of the web as an open and universal space, hypothesized by Tim Berners-Lee When he invented the world Wide Web in the now distant 1989. It’s a pity!
