Russia is considering legislation that would have the nation temporarily disconnect itself from the Internet as a means of defense in the case of a cyberattack from abroad.
BBC:
The draft law, called the Digital Economy National Program, requires Russia's ISPs to ensure that it can operate in the event of foreign powers acting to isolate the country online.
Nato and its allies have threatened to sanction Russia over the cyber-attacks and other online interference which it is regularly accused of instigating.
The measures outlined in the law include Russia building its own version of the net's address system, known as DNS, so it can operate if links to these internationally-located servers are cut.
NPR:
As part of the experiment, communications oversight agency Roskomnadzor would examine whether data transmitted between Russia's users can remain in the country without being rerouted to servers abroad, where it could be subjected to interception.
(...)
Russia's Communications Ministry also simulated a switching-off exercise of global Internet services in 2014, according to Russian outlet RT. It reportedly used an internal backup system to support Web operations.
The proposed law, fully endorsed by President Putin, is expected to pass. Ongoing discussions are in regards to finding the proper technical methods to disconnect Russia from the internet with minimal downtime to consumers and government agencies.
The Russian government has agreed to foot the bill and to cover the costs of ISPs modifying their infrastructure and installing new servers for redirecting traffic towards Roskomnazor's approved exchange point. The end goal is for Russian authorities to implement a web traffic filtering system like China's Great Firewall, but also have a fully working country-wide intranet in case the country needs to disconnect.
NPR:
Russia's State Duma will meet Tuesday to consider the bill, according to RIA Novosti.
Media outlets report that the unplugging exercise could be conducted before April 1.
Roskomnadzor has also exerted pressure on Google to remove certain sites on Russian searches.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told Congress last month that Russia, as well as other foreign actors, will increasingly use cyber operations to "threaten both minds and machines in an expanding number of ways—to steal information, to influence our citizens, or to disrupt critical infrastructure."
Russia Is Considering An Experiment To Disconnect From The Internet (NPR)
Russia considers 'unplugging' from internet (BBC)
Russia to disconnect from the internet as part of a planned test (ZDNet)