On Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill into law that requires internet service providers in Russia to unplug from foreign servers, and calls for the creation of a national domain system that would allow the country to stay online if it was ever cut off from the global internet, CNN reported. The law will go into effect on November 1. Russian officials first submitted the measure in December as a response to US cyber strategy following the 2016 presidential election, which the US has accused Russia of trying to manipulate, per Engadget. A state-funded poll found that 52 percent of Russians disapprove of the bill, the Moscow Times reported. Russia’s lower house of Parliament had passed the bill in mid-April. The law will allow Russia to set up infrastructure for separate Russian Internet or “Runet”, which will allow the country to keep its domestic internet running even when unplugged from non-Russian root servers. It declares that Russia’s national security is at stake, and aims to counter the “aggressive character of the US strategy on national cybersecurity”. 307 lawmakers in the lower house voted for the bill and only 68 voted against it. A few more details on the law: Although the technical details of how Russia will achieve/set up this infrastructure remain unclear, the law would regulate routing of online traffic and define internet exchange points Russia’s telecom regulator, the Roskomnadzor, will act as the central monitoring body and will take charge in case of an attack All…
