Given the ongoing cyber conflict between Russia and Western countries, would it be technically possible for Western governments or organizations to cut Russia off from the global internet? I'm wondering whether control over major networks, domain systems, or international connections would make a complete disconnection feasible.
3 Answers
Russia could be isolated from parts of the internet, but a total cutoff is a different matter. It has invested in domestic infrastructure and has been developing systems that allow important websites and services to continue operating internally. It could also retain links through neighboring countries, private networks, satellite services, and other providers that aren’t under Western control.
The internet is designed to route around failed connections. If some international links were disabled, traffic would normally look for alternate paths, although those paths might be slower, more expensive, or easier to monitor. Western governments could make access much harder and disrupt particular services, but removing all connectivity would be technically complicated, politically escalatory, and unlikely to be permanent.
Not completely. The global internet isn’t controlled by one switch or a single organization. Western countries could pressure companies, impose sanctions, block specific services, or disrupt some international connections, but Russia has domestic networks and multiple ways to maintain connectivity. Cutting every route would be extremely difficult and would require cooperation from many independent providers.
The domain-name system also isn’t a simple on/off control. Even if some organizations stopped serving Russian users, direct connections, cached information, alternative resolvers, and other routing methods could still keep parts of the network reachable.