Always online. The State Duma has adopted the Stable Runet Law on the second reading. It'll come into force no sooner than November 2019. The bill was adopted on the first reading in February. According to its authors, it's supposed to ensure the stable work of the internet in Russia in case its functioning is threatened from abroad. It's basically a response measure to the American strategy of national cyber-security which considers Russia one of the countries that allegedly perform cyberattacks.
Leonid Levin, head of the State Duma's IT Committee: "We will create additional conditions for the stable work of the Russian segment of the internet in the context of an attempted attack against the network from outside of the Russian Federation. The idea behind this bill is to give Russian users access to the internet regardless of the domestic or foreign situation, make digital public services and online banks fully available, and allow various commercial services that citizens are used to to work stably and smoothly. This bill improves the reliability of the Russian segment of the internet and guarantees the stability of its operation".
The authors claim that the idea behind the Stable Runet Law is to create a reserve, duplicate infrastructure. According to the bill, the Russian encrypting system will be used in conjunction Sorry. with the existing systems. If the system crashes or turns off, the Russian segment will continue to operate. It's the same thing with servers: foreign ones will keep operating but Russia will have backup ones. Thus, our country will remain part of the global internet space but will also greatly increase the stability and reliability of the Russian segment.
Ilya Massukh, IT specialist: "The idea is to make sure that the Russian network can't be turned off from the outside. The integration with the global network will undoubtedly remain. We'll keep on using the internet the way we used to. The new infrastructure might even make it even a bit faster, I believe since name resolution will be performed within the country".
But what happens if all of Russia suddenly goes offline? Let's check it once again. Experts believe that it'll lead to an economic and social cataclysm. According to the estimates, a single day without internet will cost our country 20 billion rubles ($310 million). That's the same sum the government plans to spend on the National Security project aimed at protecting the Runet from a shutdown.
Experts claim that otherwise, all banking apps would go offline as well so it'll be impossible to transfer money or pay for mobile networks remotely. Digital public services, taxi apps, and booking websites would also shut down. E-document management would be paralyzed. Real estate transactions would be impossible. The lack of internet would change life for Russians dramatically and, clearly, not for the better.
