The digital iron curtain being pulled around Russia, both internally and externally imposed, is a monumental and a sudden shift in the open internet. While the international community is being urged to punish Russia by switching off its internet connections, these moves will only isolate the country further. Russia is being brought closer to the day when its online networks face largely inward, hastening the fragility of the global communications network in turn.

CIGI Senior Fellow Dr. Laura DeNardis and CIGI Managing Director Aaron Shull discuss the digital iron curtain that has descended on Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine. They explore questions such as how digital infrastructure has become a proxy for politics, whether digital sanctions are effective or if they play into Putin’s playbook around control and propaganda, as well as the fate of the multi-stakeholder internet governance model amid escalating digital sanctions.