Authors

Carolina Vendil Pallin¹;  ¹ Swedish Defence Research Agency, Sweden

Discussion

In 2012, the Russian government agency, Roskomnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media), operated on a limited budget and staff. It was responsible for overseeing communication, which still mainly included television, radio and the print media. Communication online was, however, becoming increasingly important and on the heels of the Arab Spring and protests in Russia, the potential role in politics of social media, blogs and online messaging services started attracting the attention of Russian authorities in earnest.

Twelve years later, Roskomnadzor is responsible for one of the few non-military budget posts not slashed for 2025. It has a pivotal role in overseeing a government policy aimed at segmenting off a Russian section of the internet, “a sovereign internet”. With an increasing budget as well as a mandate to oversee information flows and even collect certain data for surveillance, Roskomnadzor is a growing factor in Russian domestic politics.

The paper explores Roskomnadzor’s emerging role in Russia’s authoritarian political system as well as the priorities and challenges in the next phase of building a sovereign internet.