In Russia, access to the Internet must be provided so that residents of the country can independently receive information. This was stated in a department briefing by US State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

“We have called on intermediaries from all over the world not to cut off Russia’s internet connection, so that the flow of information to the country will continue and the internet will remain free and open within Russia itself,” he said.

Price also noted that the United States will support journalists in Russia, whose work has been difficult since the outbreak of war.

Earlier, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki had announced the need to provide independent news to the Russians against the background of the war in Ukraine. She stressed that the service will not leave Russia.

Recall that in early February, Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, said that the “fundamental rights” to administer the Internet belong to the United States, so that Russia can leave the global network. According to Medvedev, to guard against such a scenario, the country had to adopt a “sovereign Runet law”.

On March 5, the federal executive authorities and constituent entities of the Russian Federation received a telegram signed by Andrey Chernenko, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Development, containing a set of recommendations for protecting the country’s information infrastructure. It did not contain direct instructions for disconnecting Russian users from the global network, but experts saw indirect prerequisites for the isolation of Runet.

In mid-April, it became known that Roskomnadzor plans to increase the efficiency of the equipment with the function of deep traffic filtering, which is used to enforce the “sovereign Runet law”.