US vs Russia for the future of the internet

US officials are stepping up a campaign to defeat a Russian candidate for a United Nations agency that could determine how much control governments have over the internet. Russia's designs on the little-known agency raise the stakes for what the Russian government's vision of the internet could mean for the rest of the world, especially following its invasion of Ukraine. The US is running a candidate to lead the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the telecommunications agency of the UN. If elected, Doreen Bogdan-Martin would be the first female secretary-general of the ITU, and the first US leader since the 1960s. Her competition is Russian candidate Rashid Ismailov, who previously worked for the Russian government and Huawei, as well as Nokia and Ericsson. There's a battle brewing over how much of a role the ITU and governments should have over internet standards and protocols, with China and Russia advocating for the ITU to have more control over how the internet operates. The vote will be held by secret ballot this fall at the ITU's Plenipotentiary Conference in Bucharest by the 193 member countries. Each country gets one vote.