What Cloudflare is doing to keep the Open Internet flowing into Russia and keep attacks from getting out

The Russian government has been tightening control over its internet since 2017, including laws requiring ISPs to monitor and block internet activity and establishing a separate DNS system outside of ICANN's oversight. Following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia made announcements related to implementing these sovereign internet laws, instructing agencies to switch to Russian DNS servers and reduce reliance on non-Russian providers. However, there has been no evidence that Russia has disconnected itself from the global internet entirely. At the same time, Russians have been adopting tools to maintain access to the global internet, with private and secure internet access apps dominating the Apple App Store in March 2022. Many Russians are also seeking out non-Russian media sources, as evidenced by a significant increase in DNS requests for US, French, and British news websites. Cloudflare has been providing services to protect Ukrainian government, media, financial, and nonprofit websites, including the Ukrainian top level domain (.ua). Additionally, Cloudflare's servers at the edge of the internet in-country have detected and blocked attacks originating there, preventing them from traveling outside Russian borders. While some have called for foreign companies to exit Russia completely, including internet providers, experts argue that it is imperative for the Russian internet to remain as open as possible for the Russian people. This allows them access to information about the war in Ukraine that the Russian government does not want them to see.