Russia VPN services to be banned in yet another censorship crusade
Russia plans to ban VPN services from all app stores nationwide by 2024, a Russian senator has confirmed.
VPNs, short for Virtual Private Network, are security software that both encrypts Internet connections and spoofs users’ IP addresses to grant them access to geo-restricted content. That is precisely why the Kremlin is trying to block these services, especially those that provide access to Meta-owned platforms, as it is considered “an extremist organization” in Russia.
Russian authorities have long been combating the use of Russian VPNs in various ways. However, these anti-VPN crusades have not always yielded the desired results: the number of VPN downloads in Russia has skyrocketed since the start of the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia’s continued crackdown on VPNs
“From March 1, 2024, an order will come into force under which VPN services providing access to sites banned in Russia will be blocked by Roskomnadzor in all markets,” said Russian Senator Artem Sheikin, the deputy chairman of the United Nations Council. Development of the digital economy – Russian domestic state news agency RIA Novosti reports this.
Sheikin also highlighted the fact that Russia’s telecom regulator, Roskomnadzor, will mainly target those VPNs that allow citizens to access Instagram and Facebook, both of which are banned in the country.
The news comes as yet another censorship crusade initiated by the Kremlin against VPN providers. However, the methods for how Moscow intends to enforce the ban are still unknown.
What is certain is that VPN censorship has long been high on Putin’s priority list. However, Samuel Woodhams, digital rights researcher at Top10VPN, told TechRadar that despite the fact that access to circumvention software is three times more restricted than the global average, it is still a long way from where China and Iran are.
He said: “The blocking of VPN websites in Russia really stood out to us. Given the recent rise of anti-VPN rhetoric and the increasing criminalization of its use, we would have expected the number of blocks to have been higher.”
It appears that Russian authorities are making another attempt to block VPNs today. Having issues with both WireGuard and OpenVPN on multiple mobile networks.August 8, 2023
Nevertheless, last August, users reported some alleged temporary VPN interventions at the protocol level that affected both WireGuard and OpenVPN. A few months earlier, the government even launched a new disinformation campaign to discourage citizens from using these tools.
However, Roskomnadzor has been feeding its centralized Internet blacklist since 2012 with URLs, domain names and IP addresses considered illegal. Many of these were actually sites of VPN providers, who later decided to pull their services completely from the country after rejecting the new government requirements.
In 2022, more than 100,000 resources were blocked after the invasion of Ukraine, compared to around 7,000 the year before. Citizens have since turned to VPNs in droves, with considerable success aside from some occasional issues from time to time.
VPN providers also appear to have invested heavily in recent years in technology that can outsmart government efforts. Censorship-resistant features and obfuscation technology are now an integral part of many VPN infrastructures.
Whether the Kremlin will be successful in its latest attempt to curb VPN use remains to be seen. In the meantime, whether you live in Russia or plan to visit Russia soon, we recommend downloading several apps to ensure you have a working app. Here are the best free VPN on the market today to help you save some money.
