Runet’s Critical Juncture: The Ukraine War and the Battle for the Soul of the Web

Following Russia's February 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine, it briefly seemed that Russia could be cut off from the global internet. Major internet backbone service providers announced plans to discontinue service to Russia or faced pressure to do so in light of sanctions, international condemnation of the Russian war, and security concerns. Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation called for a "digital blockade" of Russia and requested that ICANN (The internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) drop Russia's ".ru" country-level domain from the global internet's domain name system.1,2 These dynamics occurred even as Russia's internet regulator, Roskomnadzor, sought to block a new list of major social media platforms, online news outlets, and other critical sites, and enforced new draconian penalties for internet speech violations, including referring to the invasion as a "war." As internet users [End Page 63] within Russia downloaded VPNs (virtual private networks) to bypass censorship in record numbers, some speculated that the Russian government—known to have previously implemented greater control of Russia's domestic networks partly through architectural changes—might finally realize its most technically-daunting and repressive goal: cutting its domestic internet off from the global network in a time of crisis.3,4 The Kremlin would have met this objective with the assistance of Western companies and governments seeking its punishment. Amidst this backdrop, a coalition of leading internet rights organizations from around the world came together to sign an open letter to the Biden administration. They condemned Russia's aggression, but also requested that the US government and other likeminded countries and actors not take actions that could deliberately or inadvertently disconnect Russian citizens from global internet access as a result of the war.

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