The Real Russia. Today. Internet isolation passes the Duma, an interview with Joanna Stingray, and another Pussy Riot arrest

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

This day in history: 74 years ago, on April 16, 1945, the Soviet Army began its final assault against Nazi forces, initiating the Battle of Berlin. By the time the battle ended two weeks later, Adolf Hitler had committed suicide, and the fall of the Nazi regime was imminent.

• State Duma passes law ‘isolating’ Russian Internet
• Joanna Stingray brought Soviet rock to the West. We asked her about her old friends and her new book.
• Pussy Riot member arrested on the way to theater awards ceremony where she is among the nominees
• Hague court orders Russia to pay Ukrainian energy company $44 million for lost gas stations in Crimea
• Head of Russia’s censorship agency marks a year of blocking Telegram: ‘You probably notice on occasion that it’s slower to load’
• Russian court rejects investigative outlet’s lawsuit resisting threats of censorship

Internet isolation passes the Duma 🔒

The State Duma has approved the third and final reading of a bill “providing for the save and sustainable functioning” of the Internet on Russian territory.

The law would allow the Russian government to control all connections between the Russian segment of the Internet and the rest of the world. It provides for the creation of infrastructure that would enable the Russian segment to work in isolation if operators are unable to connect with Internet servers abroad. The agency responsible for executing the law will be Roskomnadzor, the Russian government’s censorship organ.

Most of the Internet isolation law is scheduled to take effect on November 1, 2019. Certain provisions on encryption and a national domain name system will take effect later, on January 1, 2021.

Russia’s Federation Council will consider the law on April 22.

Read Meduza's reporting here:

• “State Duma passes law ‘isolating’ Russian Internet”
• “Russia’s government is moving closer to Internet isolation. How much of the Web does the Russian segment take up?”
• “Head of Russia’s censorship agency analogizes new Internet isolation bill and nuclear weapons”

How an American brought Soviet rock to the world 🎸

Joanna Stingray’s new book Stingray in Wonderland was recently released by the Russian publisher AST Nonfiction. Stingray is a highly significant figure in the history and culture of Soviet rock: she smuggled unofficial recordings of Soviet rock bands out of the USSR and introduced Americans to Russian underground culture. Then, she came back to her musician friends in Leningrad, bringing equipment and instruments along with her. In 1986, Stingray released the record Red Wave in the United States. It included recordings of Kino, Akvarium, Alisa, Strannye Igri, and other legendary bands, and its release essentially enabled the West to discover Soviet rock. Stingray spoke with Meduza about her new book.

Read Meduza's interview here: “Joanna Stingray brought Soviet rock to the West. We asked her about her old friends and her new book.”

News briefs

• 👮 Veronika Nikulshina, a member of Pussy Riot, was arrested on the way to a theater awards ceremony where she was among the nominees. Pyotr Verzilov, another member of the group, told Mediazona about the incident. Nikulshina had previously participated in Pussy Riot’s “The Police Enter the Game” performance, running onto the field during the final game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Read the story here.
• ⛽ An international arbitration court in The Hague has ordered the Russian government to pay the Ukrainian company Ukrnafta $44.4 million in compensation for seizing 16 of the company’s Crimean gas stations when the peninsula was annexed in 2014. Read the story here.
• ⏱️ Alexander Zharov, the head of the Russian government’s censorship agency, said that a year of attempts to block the social app Telegram had resulted in the application operating more slowly within Russia’s borders. Read the story here.
• 🚫 In December of 2018, Roskomnadzor threatened to add one of Mediazona’s articles to its registry of websites that are blocked on Russian territory unless the outlet made changes to the text. The article was related to the alleged torture of 22-year-old Ilnaz Pirkin in a local Russian police station. Read the story here.