Moscow says it isn't planning to build an ‘alternate Internet,’ but it could, if it had to, and don't you forget it

Russia’s Foreign Ministry assures the international community that Moscow has no plans to isolate the RuNet or build an alternate Internet, but it also wants people to know that Russia has the “technical, financial, intellectual, and otherwise” capabilities to build an alternate Internet and, hey, Brazil, India, China, and South Africa, maybe you’d like to build an alternate Internet? That’s the gist of remarks by Ilya Rogachev, the director of the Foreign Ministry’s New Challenges and Threats Department.

In November 2017, Russia’s Security Council instructed the Foreign Ministry to engage Brazil, India, China, and South Africa on the question of creating a separate, independent Domain Name System. According to the magazine RBC, experts believe this would require building an entirely separate Internet.