Russia tries to cut itself off from the web as Kremlin attempts to clamp down on internet freedoms

  • Russian service provider general director has spoken of the experiments
  • Tested whether country's internet worked separately from World Wide Web
  • Russia has been tightening control of the internet by introducing new laws

By Jenny Stanton For Mailonline

Published: 14:47 EST, 16 October 2015 | Updated: 15:08 EST, 16 October 2015

Vladimir Putin once described the Internet as a project of the CIA

Vladimir Putin once described the Internet as a project of the CIA

Russia has run tests to find out whether it can cut the country off from the World Wide Web, it has been claimed.

Andrei Semerikov, general director of a Russian service provider, said communications hubs run by the main Russian internet providers were ordered to block foreign communications channels.

The Telegraph reports that a traffic control system called DPI was used and the aim was to find out whether the internet in the country could work separately from the World Wide Web.

The experiment, ordered by Russia’s ministry of communications and the country's internet regulator, Roskomnadzor, and carried out in the spring, reportedly failed.

Mr Semerikov, general director of Er Telecom, said it was due to the large number of smaller service providers, which the regulator does not have a lot of control over.

Russia denied the tests had been carried out.  

An expert on Russia's security services told The Telegraph the country was preparing for the possibility of shutting down the information flow in and out of the country in case of a 'domestic political emergency'.

Russia has been tightening its control of the internet by introducing new legislation and banning websites.

In August, a government agency ordered that internet providers block access to a page on the Russian-language version of Wikipedia for containing banned information on a type of cannabis.

And in May, internet giants Google, Twitter and Facebook were warned they could be banned in the country if they violate its strict cyberspace laws. 

Roskomnadzor sent letters to the US-based Internet firms telling them they will be blocked if they do not agree to hand over data on Russian bloggers and allow the Kremlin to block certain websites.

Legislation: President Vladimir Putin promised late last year not to put the internet under full government control, but Kremlin critics see the Internet laws as part of a crackdown on freedom of speech

Legislation: President Vladimir Putin promised late last year not to put the internet under full government control, but Kremlin critics see the Internet laws as part of a crackdown on freedom of speech

Under its laws, companies must provide data on any bloggers with more than 3,000 readers per day.  

President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB spy, once described the Internet as a project of the CIA.

He promised late last year not to put the internet under full government control, but Kremlin critics see the Internet laws as part of a crackdown on freedom of speech since Putin returned to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012.

Russia has passed legislation banning sites that contain child pornography, drug-related or militant material, or which advocate suicide. 

Last year the Kremlin granted itself the power to remove, without court order, sites promoting unauthorised protests.  

The country recently banned adult movie website Pornhub and 10 other sites on the grounds that they are harmful to children.

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