Internet backbone provider Lumen leaves Russia
The firm, with clients including Rostelecom and TransTelekom, intends to cease all commercial activities as soon as possible
Lumen Technologies, a global provider of internet infrastructure, has terminated its operations in Russia.
The company said it is quitting the country over concerns of an 'increased security risk', fears of Kremlin action, and a desire to defend the integrity of the internet as a whole.
'Life has taken a turn in Russia and Lumen is unable to continue to operate in this market,' the company said in a statement on its website.
It intends to cease all commercial activities as soon as possible. It has begun notifying customers, and is in the process of closing down the business from a legal and regulatory aspect. It is also taking several other steps to wind down operations in the region.
Lumen added that its services in Russia are small and limited, and it only has a small number of enterprise customers in the country.
However according to Kentik, Lumen is a key source of international data inside Russia, with clients including state-owned telecommunications firms such as Rostelecom and TransTelekom, among others.
Lumen currently operates more than 500,000 miles of fibre and 170,000 on-net buildings worldwide.
'We have not yet experienced network disruptions but given the increasingly uncertain environment and the heightened risk of state action, we took this move to ensure the security of our and our customers' networks, as well as the ongoing integrity of the global internet,' the firm said.
On Friday, US-based Cogent Communications also announced the end of its operations in Russia, citing its opposition to the Russian invasion as the primary reason.
Many tech-related firms have left Russia recently, including credit card firms Mastercard and Visa and software vendors SAP and Oracle. But Ukraine is still pushing for more stringent action.
Last week, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's digital transformation minister, urged Cloudflare to stop safeguarding Russian web resources and services from cyber attacks.
"I am sure that you will not only listen, but also do everything possible to protect Europe, Ukraine and the whole democratic world from this bloody, authoritarian aggression," Fedorov wrote.
"Therefore, I demand to disable [Russian Federation] sites from Cloudflare and block the ability to use your services."
So far Cloudflare has refused to comply, arguing that 'Russia needs more Internet access, not less,' so the Russian people can retain access to media away from state control.
The Ukrainian government has also requested ICANN, the non-profit organisation that oversees the internet, to revoke all domains assigned to Russia, including.ru.
In an email to Göran Marby, CEO of ICANN, Fedorov said the Putin administration had used internet infrastructure to propagandise its war effort; therefore ICANN should take tough action and shut down the primary Domain Name System (DNS) servers in the country.
Earlier this month, domain registrar Namecheap told its Russia-based customers that it would no longer be able to offers services to them and they must immediately find alternative providers.
Computing says:
The loss of global internet infrastructure providers will further isolate Russia from the rest of the world - and therefore from sources of information that could otherwise enable citizens to gain a perspective on the invasion that the now-state-controlled media will be unable to deliver.
Since invading Ukraine, Russia has passed new regulations making it illegal to mention the invasion in the media. The government is also clamping down on anti-war protests inside its borders.