Consider two traceroutes to parliament.ru

one from Australia, the other from New Zealand:

traceroute to parliament.ru (109.238.90.147), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets 
1  10.216.1.48 (10.216.1.48)  0.199 ms  0.148 ms  0.125 ms 
2  10.216.35.25 (10.216.35.25)  0.298 ms  0.307 ms  0.275 ms 
3  10.216.32.1 (10.216.32.1)  0.927 ms  1.192 ms  1.160 ms 
4  lo0-0.gw2.syd1.au.linode.com (172.105.160.102)  2.427 ms lo0-0.gw1.syd1.au.linode.com (172.105.160.101)  1.110 ms  1.083 ms 
5  ae19.r01.syd01.ien.netarch.akamai.com (104.70.113.20)  0.324 ms ae29.r02.syd01.ien.netarch.akamai.com (104.70.113.22)  0.368 ms  0.
343 ms 
6  ae18.alx-edge421.sydney.telstra.net (120.151.79.161)  0.341 ms atm11-0-0.305.sb3.optus.net.au (59.154.163.237)  1.872 ms ae18.alx-e
dge421.sydney.telstra.net (120.151.79.161)  0.359 ms 
7  * * * 
8  * * bundle-ether2.pad-gw30.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.6.116)  1.706 ms 
9  * bundle-ether1.sydp-core03.telstraglobal.net (203.50.13.86)  1.927 ms * 
10  * * * 
11  i-10201.sydp-core04.telstraglobal.net (202.84.222.134)  2.455 ms  2.409 ms  1.470 ms 
12  i-10201.sydp-core04.telstraglobal.net (202.84.222.134)  136.779 ms *  138.017 ms 
13  i-20802.eqnx-core02.telstraglobal.net (202.84.141.25)  136.534 ms 59.154.57.6 (59.154.57.6)  55.863 ms 59.154.57.2 (59.154.57.2)  5
4.374 ms 
14  a63j-c93-ig-01-net-lo0.optus.net.au (61.88.33.61)  53.256 ms i-92.eqnx03.telstraglobal.net (202.84.247.17)  146.209 ms a63j-c93-ig-
01-net-lo0.optus.net.au (61.88.33.61)  53.230 ms 
15  ae10.edge1.sjo1.sp.lumen.tech (4.68.68.125)  151.288 ms *  151.155 ms 
16  ae2.3222.edge9.frf1.neo.colt.net (171.75.8.101)  279.077 ms  279.103 ms ae16.cr4-sin1.ip4.gtt.net (89.149.182.134)  198.951 ms 
17  * * 63-216-144-41.static.as3491.net (63.216.144.41)  98.825 ms 
18  BE41.br03.frf06.as3491.net (63.220.65.43)  267.064 ms * * 
19  * * * 
20  * * * 
21  * * * 
22  * * * 
23  * * * 
24  * * * 
25  * * * 
26  * * * 
27  * * * 
28  * * * 
29  * * * 
30  * * * 
root@millions:~# 

 traceroute parliament.ru
traceroute to parliament.ru (109.238.90.147), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 _gateway (10.0.0.1) 0.353 ms 0.383 ms 0.498 ms
2 craigs.soul (192.168.1.1) 2.813 ms 2.706 ms 2.871 ms
3 * * *
4 * * *
5 * * *
6 * * *
7 * * *
8 * * *
9 * * *
10 * * *
11 * * *
12 * * *
13 * * *
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * * *
19 * * *
20 * * *
21 * * *
22 * * *
23 * * *
24 * * *
25 * * *
26 * * *
27 * * *
28 * * *
29 * * *
30 * * *
[tom@putin millions.funk.nz]$

The first trace is done from a Linode data center in Sydney that hosts my experimental internet art piece / game / UI benchmark millions.funk.nz. One can see the traffic going out of Linode in Sydney, into Akamai, then Telstra still in Sydney, going between racks ae18 to dge421 not sure what they could be, then to Optus, Lumen.tech, colt.net, before it dissolves into a generic as3491 (autonomous system), the last intelligible location frf06 I reckon could be France or Frankfurt.

The second is done from my neighbors residential fibre Gigabit GPON in Auckland. It instantly goes dark!

So does this mean my ISP is seemingly 0 hops from Russia?! WTF?!

A trace with ‘mtr’ fairs a little better, discovering some hosts at tranzpeer. And then on to a 10.101 address. OK.

So why does this matter?

Nah it doesn’t really matter. It seems a bit off is all.

My traceroute [v0.96]
putin (10.0.0.11) -> parliament.ru (109.238.90.147) 2026-06-25T03:26:59+1200
Keys: Help Display mode Restart statistics Order of fields quit
Packets Pings
Host                       Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1. _gateway                    0.0% 3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.0
2. craigs.soul                 0.0% 3 1.1 1.1 0.9 1.2 0.2
3. v1.akfor-bng2.tranzpeer.net 0.0% 3 3.0 3.0 2.8 3.1 0.1
4. 10.101.0.158                0.0% 3 2.8 3.8 2.5 6.1 2.0
5. (waiting for reply)

 

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