The authors of the law on the "sovereign Internet" adopted in the first reading could not explain which "external threats" it would protect. But they admitted that the document would make it possible to control all internal Russian traffic. The State Duma accepted.
February 12, 2019 may well become a future public holiday - "the birthday of the sovereign Russian Internet." The controversy in the State Duma was heated. She eventually forced the authors of the bill to say out loud that tens of billions on “network sovereignty” would allow the authorities to “watch all traffic in the country online” in order to advise telecom operators how to “build its routes” and better deal with prohibited information.
After that, the deputies, as it seemed to the audience, having not received a single intelligible answer, what "threats from the outside" the bill of senators Andrey Klishas, Lyudmila Bokova and deputy Andrei Lugovoy eliminates, supported the idea of "duplicating" the Internet at the national level in the first reading. Only 10% in today's State Duma have pressed the "against" button.
That the discussion on the "sovereign Internet" promises to become brighter than other discussions of the current Russian parliament, it became clear even when the agenda of the meeting was approved. The leader of the LDPR faction, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, said that he was revoking the signature of the co-author of the bill, a member of the LDPR faction, Andrei Lugovoi, and that the Liberal Democrats would not vote for this at all. However, the co-author of the law on the Russian "forvol", himself, said that the signature would not be revoked, but, on the contrary, would support the idea.
Lugovoi called the misunderstanding with the boss a "working moment." Zhirinovsky himself no longer remembered his colleague. In his tweet, the LDPR leader later said that the faction voted against, because "constantly limiting freedom of information is like limiting love."
The main creator of the document, Senator Andrei Klishas, again did not come to the State Duma to talk about his resonant bill. And if the last time, when discussing fines for "clear disrespect for the authorities", the "good reason" for the absence was confusion in the work of the deputies themselves, which the senator told us about, today he was busy communicating with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the senator's assistants have already specified.
Therefore, for all supporters against all opponents, senator Lyudmila Bokova was sent into battle. During two hours of communication with the deputies, she clearly revealed the term "duplication". But this is not about a bill designed to create a kind of infrastructural duplicate of what was built a long time ago, the same arguments have been duplicated all this time.
The idea that the document is intended not to "cut down" information objectionable to the authorities, but to protect citizens, Bokova articulated after each question of the deputies. Her promises to take all criticism into account in the second reading were just as often duplicated. The arguments that, in principle, prompted her to write this bill, also sounded like a refrain. Like Lugovoi in December, Bokova told MPs in February about the US cybersecurity doctrine of 2018, where Russia was named the main threat, and therefore a target, the senator is sure. Vulnerabilities on the territory of the Russian Federation, according to her, have already been identified during the exercises, which were held twice. However, today it is impossible to list the threats, because for their accurate identification it is necessary to conduct exercises “regularly”. By the way, Klishas's visit to the Duma would hardly help with the answer to the question: what exactly is threatening us? The senator said yesterdaythat this has yet to be understood. With the help of (attention, duplication!) Teachings.
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The repetitions of Lyudmila Bokovoy were diluted by deputy Leonid Levin, head of the Duma committee on informatization. He added some specifics to the imminent future.
“A center for the analysis of information threats will be created on the basis of Roskomnadzor. He will monitor traffic. He will take over the management of information flows,”Levin said.
“There is no smell of democracy and human rights here,” said Fedot Tumusov, a deputy from Yakutia.
“If you read the bill carefully, it does not bear any additional restrictions on freedom of speech or dissemination of information. It says about blocking illegal information. But the main aspect is the creation of an information threat center, which should ensure the quality of traffic routing,”Leonid Levin quickly conducted an explanatory work.
Deputy Dmitry Ionin as if casually reminded that the Chinese came up with the highest quality traffic control, having built their own network "firewall" ("Great Firewall" is the common name for the Chinese model of Internet traffic control).
“There is nothing here related to the Chinese development of the Internet. Other points apply. It is important for us to protect our citizens. For this purpose, routing is being created, which provides Internet traffic through the territory of the Russian Federation,”Lyudmila Bokova put a“clear example”on“repetition”. - Today we cannot determine through which traffic points a regular email goes. We cannot guarantee protection that this letter will not fall into the hands of third parties."
Leonid Levin again joined in to extinguish the smoldering fire of indignation of his colleagues. “It is incorrect to compare the Russian Federation with China. They have a limited number of traffic entry points. And the Russian Federation has a lot of them. Nobody plans to limit them. They just have to be accountable."
This simple idea was developed by the co-author of the law, Andrei Lugovoi. This member of the Liberal Democratic Party let slip that in addition to protecting the habits of Russians to live on the Internet, when "we are disconnected from the outside," the authorities want to control all Internet traffic.
“We need an audit of all communication lines on the territory of the Russian Federation. We have no idea about networks or cross-border crossings. At all. Who they belong to, what information is transmitted on them, we do not know. The monitoring center will see it online. Its task is not to indicate how to build routing correctly, but to prompt. We propose to create a duplicate structure,”added Andrei Lugovoy, who did not obey the will of his faction leader.
And then the fire broke out. LDPR member Sergei Ivanov recalled Schwartz's play "To Kill the Dragon", where the life-long burgomaster, having learned about the loss of one of the heads by the dragon, decided to close all windows in the houses of citizens. “How is this stuff going to work ?! After all, we do not produce anything from the necessary equipment! Bullshit! Bring me on for disrespect! " - Deputy Ivanov made a noise.
"Where does the money come from for all this?" - the deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation were perplexed and complained that there was no money for the veterans and pensioners, and it was not clear what they had to fight. To this, Lyudmila Bokova said that all expenses had already been laid down earlier in the budget adopted by the Duma. Indeed, the country's budget for the initial stage of implementing the idea has already found about 2 billion rubles. However, later, Senator Andrei Klishas said that it had been decided to spend at least 20 billion rubles on work.
And even earlier, in December 2018, the draft law on the "sovereign Internet" was criticized by experts under the Russian government. According to their conclusions, if the law is adopted, the costs at the initial stage alone will exceed 25 billion rubles.
It was clearly pointless to argue about money, and another LDPR deputy, Andrei Sherin, decided to make a different argument. He brought to the rostrum two plastic glasses tied with a rope, and said that the authorities left citizens only this “pioneer” way of communication. His forecast - as a result, a normal connection will be left only to a hundred chosen ones. Apparently pleased with his wit, the deputy asked Bokova whether those exercises on the stability of the Runet would not coincide with protests and elections. To which Senator Bokova agreed that clear planning is, of course, necessary, "so that no coincidences or damages are created."
Sherin Bokovoy did not believe and said that in fact the authorities want to control Youtube, which "harms the propaganda of federal channels." “When they try to tighten all the screws, it leads to an explosion,” Andrei Sherin continued to share his knowledge of the school physics course.
The idea of censoring Youtube and other "places inaccessible to Roskomnadzor" was taken up by Yaroslav Nilov. "Tell me bluntly, is this law a tool that can be used this way?" - he asked the Deputy Minister of Digital Development Oleg Ivanov.
“If possible, no shutdown. The answer is no. Roskomnadzor acts in cases clearly stipulated by law and only on the basis of court decisions,”the deputy minister replied.
Intra-factional discord was also demonstrated by other "systemic oppositionists" - members of the "Fair Russia" faction. Oleg Nilov attacked Bokova with reproaches that it was not her business to write such laws at all, since she "did not serve in the GRU."
“Solve these issues by secret decrees! What nonsense! Separate God's gift - the security of the country - from the fried eggs that you are trying to feed us here. This law of Klishas can come out sideways, "- the deputy Nilov traditionally left for folklore. At the same time, his party colleague Elena Drapeko admitted that electoral masochism does not bother her personally. “The entire Internet community will now rush to tear to shreds all who support the document. But I strongly support this bill! " - the deputy chairman of the committee on culture covered her colleague Bokova with her body from machine-gun criticism.
The head of the informatization committee finally switched to a language understandable to his colleagues, recalling that the Russian authorities had previously successfully coped with food security, improved security in payment systems, and it was time to move away from dependence in the information field. “We are already building 5G networks. And all services, regardless of external destabilization, will work in our territory without interruption."
All questions that neither Bokova nor Deputy Minister of Communications Oleg Ivanov could answer to the deputies today were promised to be clarified by the second reading, as well as in the "20 bylaws" that will appear after the law comes into force. At the same time, the authors of the initiative promised to take into account the concerns of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, which previously indicated the risks of critical disruptions in the Internet as a result of the adoption of the law.
In his last speech to the deputies, a profile official of the Ministry of Digital Development Oleg Ivanov admitted that he is responsible for the successful implementation of the digital development program and that the document really needs serious revision. “But if we do not now take the necessary measures to protect against external threats, then in three years it will be too late,” the deputy minister was implacable. Oleg Ivanov compared the law on the sovereign Internet to the installation of electricity generators in a house where electricity went out.
By the way, only Alena Arshinova spoke on behalf of the main party of the State Duma, United Russia. “There is no talk of any isolation of the Runet. The bill does not aim at isolation at all. The bill is aimed at protecting the rights of citizens who lead a digital lifestyle,”she read the familiar“mantra”.
These simple words were enough for Arshinova's colleagues. Especially when United Russia, possessing a "constitutional majority", may not even look at other factions at all. Result: 334 - for, 47 - against. There were no abstentions.
For the official Internet resource of the State Duma, where the meeting was broadcast live, today was rather a hateful existence. The site was constantly hanging, the broadcast was interrupted. Either the “enemies from the outside” are to blame, or the capacity of state servers was not ready for such interest from the Russians, who, apparently, still want to live an active “digital life”.
Nikolay Nelyubin
