Russia's Cyber Policy on Evolution of Virtual Space Governance Regime

Russia’s extensive diplomatic efforts to govern and make the virtual space regulations, referred to as cyber diplomacy, have passed three stages of development so far. At first, the purpose of Russian cyber diplomacy was restricted to the prevention of militarization in the cyberspace, but the extending scope of the cyber and information wars made Russia enter the stage of convincing the governments to accept a series of rules governing the activities of states in the cyberspace. Russia further launched efforts to sign bilateral agreements with a number of Western states in order to ban the military use of information and communications technology against each other. This study examines the initiatives, priorities, motives, and consequences of Russia’s cyber diplomacy at the international, regional and bilateral levels and looks for an answer to the key question of “what is the intellectual origin of Russian cyber diplomacy and what purpose does it pursue?” According to the findings of the study, Russia’s cyber diplomacy is rooted in its comprehension of cyberspace as a new instrument for Western hegemony. Moscow’s ultimate purpose of making diplomatic efforts in the cyberspace is to end the regulatory authority of the entities advocating Washington, Brussels and NATO over the cyberspace and establish a global governance of the virtual space. The article is based on qualitative method (descriptive-analytical research) and has used inductive methodology. The descriptive statistics and the findings have been analyzed in the light of the concept of virtual space governance and the uncertain and fluid nature of this concept.