In connection with the hype about whether the United States can turn off the Internet in Russia, a mass shutdown of which is predicted for April 1, some clarity should be made.
Most of the root DNS servers that ensure the smooth operation of the world wide web are indeed located in the United States. But suspending the Internet by decree of any government is impossible without the use of force.
From a technical point of view, it is possible to stop the work of the World Wide Web in Russia. You can, for example, “move out” the first-level domain ru, but this will only affect the availability of sites that have the ru domain zone. In Russia, there are mirrors of 11 out of 13 root DNS, in addition, an insignificant part of the traffic goes through these servers, their main function is to redirect DNS to a lower level. Knife switches with the inscription “Turn off” the Internet definitely do not exist in the world today, no matter how many hotheads would like it
In terms of US law, various commercial organizations, universities, non-profit organizations, the United States Department of Defense, and other government agencies manage root DNS.
Root DNS administration is done with the permission of ICANN, although the organizations are legally independent of each other. The ICANN organization is independent of the federal government, just as the federal reserve, for example, is independent of government agencies.
The Federal Reserve is a non-governmental organization — this structure works as follows: if the federal authorities have expressed a desire to change the budget by issuing a dollar, then the government turns to the Federal Reserve Bank, if the latter agrees, then a new batch of banknotes is issued. The federal government then borrows them from the Fed at interest.
From a political point of view, most experts and political scientists agree that the United States, if Russia is disconnected from the Internet, will only lose. The «Chinese» version of restrictions should not be taken seriously — the political situation there is radically different and the principle of functioning of the state is different
In China, the government issues a blacklist to providers, according to which they block access to certain resources or to certain areas. If blocking does not occur, the provider is quickly blocked, otherwise the license will be revoked.
