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Russia Looks At Legalizing Software Piracy And Plans To Disconnect From The Global Internet

February 28, 2022

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In the face of the numerous sanctions it faces, Russia is working on an action plan that includes regulations on the unlicensed use of software that Western companies have announced they will no longer sell in the country because of the invasion of Ukraine. On top of that, the government is ready to carry out a plan to disconnect from the global internet and migrate to a parallel intranet. Let’s see how and why the Russian government is making such radical decisions.

Russia looks at legalizing software piracy to offset international sanctions

The Russian government is considering regulations to allow the unlicensed use of software, effectively outlawing piracy. The forthcoming law, which has been confirmed by the Ministry of Digital Transformation, is being considered as a good deal of software vendors have stopped operating in Russia — and Russian government institutions and companies could be left without a license to use some applications.

In this context, Russia will remove regulations providing penalties for software piracy. There is a paragraph on the bill that says the regulation applies to software applications from companies in countries that have imposed economic sanctions on Russia. The provisions on unlicensed use of software are part of a broad package of laws Russia is preparing to combat economic sanctions, called the “Priority Action Plan to Ensure the Development of the Russian Economy Under Pressure from Foreign Sanctions.” 

Russian news website ANCB.ru also posted a draft plan from the Kremlin that outlines the measures it can take to protect the country’s economy in response to US and European sanctions, Pcmag writes. Under section 6.7.3, the plan notes “canceling” liabilities for unlicensed software through Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development. 

It’s important to mention that Russia had a piracy rate of 62% in 2017 across software installs for an estimated commercial value of $1.2 billion, according to Business Software Alliance. Since then, the tech industry has been moving to a subscription model for many products, which rely on a constant connection to the cloud. So piracy won’t be able to bootleg every software experience.

Western tech companies are pulling out of Russia 

Several software companies, including Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft, have recently announced sales bans and other measures against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. Representatives of IBM also announced that they are suspending all their activities in Russia, in a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier, Microsoft announced that it had stopped marketing its new products and services in Russia, while Apple has paused trade in its products and limited Apple Pay and other services. Google is also suspending billing on its mobile app store, Play, and pausing payment-based services for YouTube users in Russia — blaming “payment system disruption” related to Western sanctions on Russian banks.

Not only software vendors are leaving Russia. On Thursday, March 10, Sony and Nintendo announced the suspension of game console shipments, joining a global exodus of companies from Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine.

How Russia wants to disconnect from the global internet

Russia is preparing a plan to disconnect from the global internet by March 11, reports Il Fatto Quotidiano. The Italian newspaper picked up the information first reported by Nexta TV, the independent media channel founded by Belarusian dissident Roman Protasevich, which published two documents from Moscow’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communication and Media.

Italian news agency Adnkronos reports that expert cyber security sources also confirmed the rumor: Moscow has begun preparations to transfer all transmissions, server connections, and internal domain management to a parallel intranet within a few days.

From a technical point of view, according to documents sent by the ministry to “federal executive authorities and executive authorities of the Russian Federation,” they are required to “verify access to the personal accounts of domain administrators of public Internet sites, update and/or use more complex passwords ‘with’ the addition of authentication factors for users,” move transmissions to DNS servers located in the Russian Federation and delete all JavaScript code downloaded from foreign sources.

In addition, if sites use foreign hosting, public resources will be moved to Russian hosting, then they are required to move all active sites on this intranet to a “.ru” domain. The move — unprecedented so far globally — does not come unexpectedly. Moscow had been making preparations for this for some time, with the first official tests carried out successfully between June and July 2021.

Russia is now facing the biggest sanctions in history. In recent days, almost all major tech companies have suspended sales and operations in Russia, joining a growing number of multinationals boycotting or withdrawing from the country as a protest against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. In response, Russia seems to choose to further isolate itself by legalizing software piracy and disconnecting from the global internet.