Friday, November 15, 2019

Is Moscow Testing in Siberia and Far East Its Ability to Isolate the Russian Internet?


Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 10 – Internet users across Siberia and the Russian Far East are complaining of slow speeds and the failure of computer payment systems, a problem Rostelekom says it is working to correct but that could be the result of efforts by the authorities to test their ability to shut off the “sovereign” Russian internet from the world wide web.
           
            Clients in Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita, Vladivostok, Yakutsk, Tomsk and Khabarovsky, all thousands of kilometers from Moscow, have complained, the Znak news agency reports, citing social networks and the Downdetector portal (znak.com/2019-11-10/polzovateli_sibiri_i_dalnego_vostoka_zhaluyutsya_na_problemy_s_internetom).

            The Russian internet provider says that it is working on the problem and hopes to correct it within a few hours. It may very well succeed in doing that, but this case is worrisome given Moscow’s desire to be able to cut off Russian users from the world wide web and its proclivity for testing such policies far from Moscow so that they will get less attention than otherwise.

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