Russia VPN Crackdown Revelation - VPN Sites Hide Their IP Addresses

upstart writes:

Russia VPN Crackdown Revelation - VPN Sites Hide Their IP Addresses:

Reports concerning the Russian government's growing intolerance of VPNs, often refer to the technology or associated services as "banned" or otherwise outlawed.

While technically inaccurate, amendments to local law effectively place VPN services into two groups. The first group contains the VPN providers officially registered with the authorities. The second group contains the illegal services, whose owners haven't yet agreed to provide the authorities with unfettered access, when that becomes necessary.

Illegal VPN services are unsurprisingly illegal to sell. Under more recent amendments, it's also illegal to promote or encourage illegal VPN use, or provide tutorials or similar assistance to others. These are crimes punishable under law but at least for now, Russian authorities seem more likely to block offending websites, to prevent Russians from viewing illegal information.

Thanks to the tireless work of digital rights group Roskomsvoboda, blocking orders issued by many government departments, courts, and less easily defined entities that seem to come and go, can be accessed much more easily.

A Verstka.Media review of the blocking data published this week, found a fivefold increase in persistent site blocking in 2024, when compared to data for 2022.

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