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Comment by jethro_tell | Hacker News Reader

which is easy to declare without processes as needed, such as during social unrest. . ..

Oh, during a social unrest in Egypt in 2011 the government famously shut down the internet. Didn't help them much :-)

I think the main concern of the Russian internet users is to get isolated from the rest of the internet indefinitely during peace time, in a way of China or North Korea. I am not sure we are seeing signs that the Russian government intends to go that far yet.

When all that mess with Russia/Ukraine had started the West was openly contemplating disconnecting Russia from the international payment services. That had lead Russia to develop it's own.

The Internet is a vital infrastructure element. Leaving the risk of potential disruption to some US congressmen's whims is not a very wise choice. Of course it can be used with bad intentions as well but so can anything else. I think I've already mentioned this in my older post and it was downvoted eagerly.

> the West was openly contemplating disconnecting Russia from the international payment services

This is a claim made by the Russian government with little actual support as far as I know. It comes up every once in a while when the issue is mentioned, and is usually uncritically accepted.

> In September 2014, the European Parliament urged member states to consider excluding Russia from SWIFT as part of its sanctions.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2015/01/27/russia-to-...

I don't know that statement's veracity, but it seems credible.

I now looked a bit into it, thanks for the link. I think it would make a big difference if that was a credible threat by the parliament, or if it was some random grandstanding by a politician. Given that the idea was not discussed again (all references to the issue are to the same resolution, it seems, AFAICT), it is quite likely that (a) the idea was not serious, and (b) it gave the Russian government an excuse. If it's being used as an excuse then there's no point in taking it as a serious threat to Russian national security the way some people do. The Russian government is very fond of portraying itself as a victim of the West, so some skepticism is warranted.

"...it is quite likely that (a) the idea was not serious, and (b) it gave the Russian government an excuse..."

It looks like you are the one looking for excuse. Following your logic Russia should really wait until threats become very serious then be hit in the face and only then react? I think you're asking a for bit too much Kumbaya.

Couple of things, it seems that it is you who make the claim with little actual support.

Here:From the "JOINT MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION" from the European Parlament ( https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/RC-8-2014-0118... )

" 12. Recalls that the restrictive measures taken by the EU are directly linked to the Russian Federation’s violation of international law with the illegal annexation of Crimea and the destabilisation of Ukraine, while the trade measures taken by the Russian Federation, including those against Ukraine and other Eastern Partnership countries which have recently concluded Association Agreements with the EU, are unjustified; calls for the EU to consider excluding Russia from civil nuclear cooperation and the Swift system; "

Now as far as it concerns the Internet there is even no real need to bring Swift example. Any country would be insane to let their Internet infrastructure under someone else's control. Question of course how much it will cost to build a replacement for situations if the things go sour. So for many countries, especially the ones that are on friendly terms with the US, they can let it slide. Not so much for Russia, China etc.

> in Egypt in 2011 the government famously shut down the internet

The news is that they can now isolate their Internet domestically and run a Russia-only WWW. They presumably could have shut it off completely from Day 1.

Are there services Russians use daily that would not be available on a Russia only WWW?

The utility of the web isn't the protocols it technology employed; it's the content.

I would assume any foreign website (Twitter, PayPal, Facebook, etc.) would need to be co-located within Russia to continue to operate. Even then, it would be cutoff from updating or querying any foreign databases.

I can imagine online banking with foreign entities would become a problem as well.

YouTube would be one prominent example; Wikipedia, Google search & hosting, Twitter are all popular.

There are also media of a more liberal nature who can’t comfortably host in RuNet / being registered as Russian companies, so they exist outside. meduza.io being a prominent example

I can't really think of any outside of youtube. There's local search engine (Yandex and some lesser ones), there's local social website (vkontakte). Russians don't talk English well and mostly use Russian websites which are, obviously, mostly hosted inside Russia. Wikipedia is another example, but, funny enough, Russian government wants to develop a curated alternative and already have money to fund it (basically web hosted encyclopedia).

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