The US State Department urged not to disconnect Russia from the Internet

In Russia, access to the Internet must be maintained so that the inhabitants of the country can receive independent information. This was stated by US State Department spokesman Ned Price at a departmental briefing.

“We called on intermediaries from all over the world not to disconnect Russia from the Internet, so that information continues to flow into the country, and the Internet remains free and open within Russia itself,” he said.

Price also noted that the United States will support journalists in Russia, whose work has become more difficult since the start of the war.

Earlier, the need to provide Russians with independent news against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine was stated by YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. She stressed that the service is not going to leave Russia.

Recall that in early February, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev stated that the “key rights to manage” the Internet are in the United States, so Russia can be disconnected from the global network. It was to protect against such a scenario, according to Medvedev, that the country adopted a “law on sovereign Runet”.

On March 5, federal executive authorities and constituent entities of the Russian Federation received a telegram signed by Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Development Andrey Chernenko containing a number of recommendations for protecting the country's information infrastructure. It did not contain direct instructions to disconnect Russian users from the global network, however, a number of experts saw in it indirect prerequisites for the isolation of the Runet.

In mid-April, it became known that Roskomnadzor plans to increase the throughput of equipment with the function of deep traffic filtering, which is used to implement the “law on sovereign Runet”.