Is Russia Ready for Internet Isolation? Alternative Network in the Works in Case of Western Shutdown

If tomorrow we're denied access, we'll know what to do, said German Klimenko, the President's advisor on Internet development, about a probable future of the global net. Having assessed the risks, he said that, in theory, Russia is ready to Internet isolation, if such a war is, of course, declared. 2/3 of Russians regularly go online which is about 82 million people. Besides, there have recently been increasingly more aged users. According to a survey by US Google, there are more senior citizens on the Russian Internet than teenagers. Statistics made public today show that 1/10 of Russian users are aged over 65, there being only 6% of users under 19. But it's the youth who want to create something on the Internet. Older Russians mostly search for information. It's hard to imagine that everybody is suddenly disconnected from the Net. Apart from a magic cut-out, possible variants include hackers and their malicious software or a breakdown of Internet cables or satellites. Ekaterina Grigorova tried to model the worst-case scenario. - Hello, Ekaterina. Is there life in the 21st century without the Internet? - Judging by the number of surveys, social scientists, psychologists, economists often have the same question. First of all, let's listen to an Internet expert's opinion. Anton Merkurov, Internet expert: "If we imagine that in such a big city as Moscow, the Internet breaks down, which isn't, in fact, technically feasible because the Internet is manifold, many wires that aren't taken into account and you can't either break it down or block globally. The only option is to drop a neutron bomb on the city to blow to pieces all electronics. Well, in such a case, nothing will work, all shops, taxis, businesses will close, we won't be able to do anything".