Wow! Return of the Iron Curtain.
Maybe, but it also seems like a prudent test.
Wouldn’t you want to know if emails, etc., sent within your country were being routed all over the world so they could be scooped up by foreign intelligence ops or other snoopy parties? I would.
There could be a lot going on at many levels here. I don’t pretend to know all of it. Or even a little of it.