Андрей Солдатов - The Red Web - The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries

Krutskikh plotted his strategy for the Dubai meeting in an office near the foreign ministry’s twenty-seven-story tower in central Moscow. His office building next door looked like a giant, seven-story cube with an oblique angle. From there, on the fourth floor, with an Andreevsky Flag (two blue stripes crossed diagonally on white, the insignia of the Russian fleet) on the wall and a spaceship model on his desk, with his papers always carefully sorted, Krutskikh laid out the battle plan, drafting dozens of proposals for the ITU summit.

Google launched a campaign against the Russian offensive. In May 2012 Vint Cerf, “chief Internet evangelist” at Google and widely recognized as one of the fathers of the Internet, published an op-ed in the New York Times headlined “Keep the Internet Open.” [14] Vinton G. Cerf, “Keep the Internet Open,” New York Times , May 24, 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/opinion/keep-the-internet-open.html?_r=0 . He referred to Putin’s remark at the meeting with Touré in 2011 and criticized a proposal submitted by China, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to the UN General Assembly that sought to establish government-led “international norms and rules” in cyberspace. Cerf proclaimed, “The decisions taken in Dubai in December have the potential to put government handcuffs on the Net.” He appealed for action against it.

But Russia was undeterred, and preparations became more intense. In June the first draft of the Russian proposals to the ITU conference were leaked to the press. They were couched in jargon, but the point was crystal clear: Russia proposed to give countries the right to control the Internet in cases in which it was used “for the purpose of interfering in the internal affairs or undermining the sovereignty, national security, territorial integrity and public safety of other states, or to divulge information of a sensitive nature.” This would give nations the right to censor on the slimmest of pretexts. [15] Richard Lardner, “A Battle for Internet Freedom as UN Meeting Nears,” Associated Press, June 22, 2012, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/battle-internet-freedom-un-meeting-nears-0 . Then, just two weeks before the conference started in Dubai, there was another leak of Russian proposals, and then another one. The direction of the drafts was the same, giving nations “the sovereign right… to regulate the national Internet segment.” [16] The Russian proposal is dated November 17, 2012, wcitleaks.org, http://files.wcitleaks.org/public/S12-WCIT12-C-0027!R1!MSW-E.pdf .

The two-week ITU conference started on Monday, December 3, at the Dubai World Trade Center, a thirty-nine-story rectangular tower built in 1978 at the city’s Trade Centre Roundabout. More than nineteen hundred participants from 193 countries attended. [17] Brian Murphy, “Clashes Over Internet Rules to Mark International Conference,” Associated Press, December 3, 2012, www.komonews.com/news/tech/Clashes-over-Internet-rules-to-mark-Dubai-meeting-181860811.html . Krutskikh hoped this would be his triumphal moment.

The Russian delegation was led by the minister of communications, Nikiforov, with Krutskikh as a member of his team. Touré at once appointed Nikiforov one of the vice chairs of the conference. Russia’s hopes looked promising: the Russian team had already secured private pledges of support from China and eighty-seven other countries for the draft proposals, and Krutskikh was determined to win over other countries.

Throughout the first week of the conference the participants debated the leaked Russian drafts in the corridors and meeting rooms as they waited anxiously for the official Russian proposal to come. [18] The account is based on authors’ interviews with participants of the conference who preferred not to be named. Tensions were high, as the United States opposed talking about Internet regulation at the ITU conference at all. On Thursday, December 6, the head of the US delegation, Ambassador Terry Kramer, convened a special briefing. Kramer was not a career diplomat but rather a top company manager with a twenty-five-year career in the private sector and telecommunications, mostly at Vodafone, and was specifically appointed by President Obama to head the delegation. Kramer didn’t hesitate to use strong words. “Fundamentally, the conference, to us, should not be dealing with the internet sector,” he declared. “That carries significant implications that could open the doors to things such as content censorship.” He dismissed the Russian proposals out of hand. “What can happen is what are seemingly harmless proposals can open the door to censorship, because people can then say, listen, as part of internet security, we see traffic and content that we don’t like.” [19] Ambassador Terry Kramer, US Head of Delegation, “Development and Progress of the World Conference on International Telecommunications Currently Being Held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates Until December 14, 2012,” Special Briefing, World Conference on International Telecommunications, Via Teleconference, December 6, 2012, www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/rm/2012/201637.htm .

On Friday, December 7, a twenty-two-page document was passed to the conference’s organizer, the ITU. It was headed, “Russia, UAE, China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan, and Egypt. PROPOSALS FOR THE WORK OF THE CONFERENCE.” The document had the insignia of the ITU globe at the top and was dated December 5, 2012. Although the document was written in English, it had been edited by someone with a computer in Cyrillic. Some of the editing changes were made by Maria Ivankovich, an expert at the Radio Research and Development Institute within the Russian Ministry of Communications, one of three major research centers involved in developing SORM, the Russian system of communications interception.

A day later, on December 8, the website wcitleaks.org made a splash in the media by publishing a link to the latest Russian proposal, which declared that member states have “the sovereign right to establish and implement public policy, including international policy, on matters of Internet governance.” [20] The document is available at wcitleaks.org, http://files.wcitleaks.org/public/Merged%20UAE%20081212.pdf . The proposal drew condemnation from around the world, and Krutskikh’s dream began to fall apart; the Egyptian delegation announced that despite the fact that its name was on it, it “never supported the document.” On December 10, without explanation, the Russian delegation withdrew it. It was reported that Touré talked personally to Nikiforov to persuade Russia to withdraw the proposal following American threats to walk out of the conference if the document was formally submitted. [21] Dave Burstein and Grahame Lynch, “WCIT Bombshell: Russia Withdraws Internet Regulation Push, Apparently Under ITU Pressure,” Commsday.com, December 10, 2012, www.commsday.com/commsday-australasia/russia-combines-with-china-arab-states-on-dramatic-internet-regulatory-push . Touré feared that the proposal could break up the conference completely, and he wanted the new treaty to be signed.

The Russian initiative failed spectacularly—strongly opposed by the United States and other Western governments.

At the last day of the conference, on Friday, December 14, a new treaty was offered for signing, and eighty-nine countries endorsed the document, including Russia. Much of the language of the earlier drafts had been taken out, but the final document still contained Article 5B, which stated, “Member states should endeavour to take necessary measures to prevent the propagation of unsolicited bulk electronic communications and minimize its impact on international telecommunication services.”