LeeAnne LowryRussia says it has successfully tested a national alternative to the global internet.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently signed a law to allow for the infrastructure to build an independent internet. There aren't many details about the test, but the Russian government said users didn't notice a change.
As many media outlets have pointed out, this would be an ambitious and challenging project, and it's not clear what stage Russia has reached. There's also a question about motivation: Critics argue this is a way for the country to police the content users have access to.
But earlier this week, Putin told state media that this new internet is about sovereignty, not cutting Russia off from the rest of the world. He said, "This is what sovereignty is — to have our resources that can be turned on so that we would not be cut from the internet."
