News / Russia

Russian lawmakers push for greater internet security against US cyber warfare

Saturday, 15 December 2018 6:45 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 15 December 2018 7:01 PM ]

The file photo shows an electronic screen displaying voting results for a pension reform bill at the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, in the capital city of Moscow on September 26, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)

Amid a rising threat of cyber warfare from the United States, a draft law pushing for greater Russian internet security has been presented to Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma.

The Friday proposal highlighted that added measures were needed in order to address the “aggressive character of the National Cyber Strategy adopted by the United States.”

“In an environment like this, defensive measures are needed to ensure that the internet in Russia functions long-term and in a stable way,” read the statement.

The draft more specifically seeks to "ensure operability of Russian Internet resources in case Russian communication operators are unable to connect to foreign root servers of the Internet," according to a statement provided to the Russian TASS news agency.

In September, US President Donald Trump’s National Cyber Strategy was published, granting the Defense Department and other American agencies greater authority to attack foreign networks as a “deterrent” against attacks on US systems.

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Refuting claims that Russia is seeking to curb domestic access to the internet, Alexander Pankov, the deputy head of the Russian regulator Roskomnadzor, said the bill is not seeking a closed-off internet model for the country.

"The point is that our communication network and the Russian internet should remain operable in case of certain purposeful impacts of negative nature on networks," said Pankov.

The law will also further determine necessary internet traffic routing regulations and detail plans for a national domain name system.

The United States and more recently Canada, Britain and the Netherlands have accused the Kremlin of orchestrating cyberattacks against their interests.

Russia, however, has denounced the allegations as part of a growing "Western spy mania” campaign against the country.