Will hypothetical disconnection of Russia from global internet affect Azerbaijan?

By Trend

The hypothetical disconnection of Russia from the global internet will not affect the Azerbaijani segment and internet users in Azerbaijan, Chairman of the Azerbaijani internet community Galib Gurbanov told Trend.

Gurbanov said that after the introduction of sanctions against Russia, there is such a question whether it is possible to completely disconnect it from the global internet.

“While joining the sanctions, some backbone global internet operators located in the US and Europe have recently disconnected some major internet providers of Russia, such as Rostelecom, VimpelCom, MegaFon and others,” chairman added. “But I think that Russia is unlikely to be fully disconnected from the global network.”

Gurbanov stressed that any sanction against any country has the opposite effect.

“The internet is such a type of activity in which the damage from the opposite effect may be unacceptable for the countries imposing sanctions,” the chairman said.

“There are a few examples,” Gurbanov said. “Today Russia continues supplying oil, gas and other raw materials to Europe and other countries. Therefore, daily correspondence is carried out, the contracts are agreed and drawn up, technical and technological issues are discussed, bills are paid, etc.”

Gurbanov added that of course, all this is carried out through e-mails, via the internet.

Moreover, almost all interstate and diplomatic correspondence, not to mention telephone conversations, are carried out via the internet,” the chairman said.

Gurbanov also stressed that such an opinion was expressed in social networks that the Azerbaijani internet communication passes through Russia and the Azerbaijani internet will be also affected as a result of the disconnection of the Russian Federation from the global internet.

“I think that such an opinion is connected with a lack of knowledge about the global internet and its functions,” the chairman added. “When any services or even a segment of the internet are disconnected, this does not mean that the cables supplying the internet stream will be disconnected.”

Gurbanov said that IP addresses of any services or the entire segment of the internet are simply blocked.

“Therefore, the hypothetical disconnection of the Russian internet will not affect the Azerbaijani segment of the internet and internet users of Azerbaijan,” Gurbanov said. “The Azerbaijani segment of the internet is protected and stable, it has several ports both in the northern, southern, and eastern directions.”