Roskomnadzor says no experiment on Russia's disconnection from Internet

Media reports citing director general of ER-Telecom and vice-president of Media and communication Union Andrey Semerikov came out on Wednesday claiming that such experiment had been carried out in spring.

"As for the so-called experiment on simulation of Russia's disconnection from the Internet, carried out by Roskomnadzor and the Ministry of Communications. I don't want to deny someone's nonsense. I don't know who lied. I just call a spade a spade. This "news is nonsense," a spokesman for Roskomnadzor Vadim Ampelonsky wrote on Facebook.

Read alsoRussia cannot do without Visa, MasterCard security systemAmpelonsky said that ER-Telecom used its equipment in March to simulate the blockage of an M9 international transmission channel.

"The purpose was to evaluate the stability of services on provision of Internet access to the operator's subscribers in Perm region," he said.

Read alsoFacebook not going to transfer Russian user data onto Russian servers"Roskomnadzor has no relation to these actions and is unaware of their results. As for the information that Roskomnadzor has the equipment for enhanced traffic analysis, it is impossible, because it's illegal," Ampelonsky said.

As reported earlier, the Russian Ministry of Communications and Roskomnadzor carried out the experiment on simulation of Russia's disconnection from the Internet. The experiment was conducted in spring 2015 and failed.

Read alsoPoll: 42% of Russians ready to give up freedom of speech and travel to other countries for "decent wage"In September 2014, the Russian Security Council planned to consider the possibility to disable the Internet in Russia in case of emergency.

According to the survey, the majority of Russian Internet users are not ready to defend online freedoms. Moreover, 58% would not mind against a total disconnection from the Internet.