Russia has mounted an effort in recent weeks to bring the root infrastructure of the Internet under control of state-affiliated bureaucracies, both internationally and at home.
The global push is likely to fizzle out, industry experts said — but at home, the plan has every chance of succeeding.
Backers of the Kremlin line say bigger state control of the Internet is mandatory for national security, hinting that the U.S. could disconnect Russia from the Web.
But critics say that Russia, which already censors the Internet, simply wants to expand its means of political censorship.
"Russia wants state control of the global network … instead of public control," said Artem Kozlyuk, a freedom of information activist with Rublacklist.net, an independent Internet freedom watchdog.
The latest wave-generating proposal came from Russian Communications and Mass Media Minister Nikolai Nikiforov, who urged the launch of a reform at the United Nations to give control of the Internet to national governments.
The move would prevent deliberate disconnections of national segments of the Internet, Nikiforov said earlier this week in South Korea at a session of the International Telecommunications Union, a UN body.
He identified the United States as a possible threat to other nations' Internet access, according to a transcript on the ministry's website.…The Moscow Times
Russia Wants State Control of Root Internet Infrastructure
Alexey Eremenko
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