The Russian duma voted in favour of greater control over the internet

the Internet is the Kremlin's weak point. In contrast to the chinese regime have Russian state, not from the beginning limited the internet. Long considered Putin to the grid was unattractive. He focused primarily on taking over all the major tv channels.

for over twenty years, russians with other words, have been accustomed to be able to read what they want online. Facebook and Twitter are not blocked in Russia (unlike China), the only thing the Russian authorities have dared to prohibit the is Linkedin. Some individual website has also been banned, but the blocking is easy to circumvent with the help of vpn.

as a variety of restrictions have been imposed. Secondly, the law on extremism, which means that you can get a prison sentence for having liked an update. As well as the fake news, which was approved in the spring, and that makes it illegal to blaspheme statssymboler.

Now the state duma, in a second vote, approved a law that allows to completely isolate the Russian system if it is exposed to attack. Officially justified the law with the network in Russia should be able to function even if one of the basis of trying to detach it from the rest of the world.

In practice, the evidence suggests that the authorities want to strengthen control over the network, and, if necessary, to isolate the country. About 10,000 people in Moscow rallied against the law at the beginning of march.

outwardly, now led solely via the some servers, which must be approved by the authorities. It simplifies the job if the authorities want to stop certain pages. It will also be easier to block vpn use, which is a popular way in Russia to circumvent the prohibition of certain pages.

the Russian state duma is in practice a rubber stamp – this initiative has come from the Kremlin. As so often when the Kremlin enacts the laws, the text is fuzzy written and it is unclear how it will actually be applied.

It is not the central focus. It is important for the Kremlin is to show that in his hand holds a large stick, from which it is prepared to use. If it would be needed.

the Law must still be approved by the state duma lower house of parliament in a third vote, then approved by the duma's upper house and then be ratified by president Vladimir Putin.

Read more: Moscow bans the sharing of news that is ”disrespectful” against the state

Read more: Thousands of russians protested against the åtstramat the internet