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Government Network Privacy Security The Internet

Russia Says It Will Soon Begin Blocking Major VPNs (torrentfreak.com) 75

Posted by BeauHD from the cease-and-desist dept.
Russian telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor will start blocking major VPNs including NordVPN, ExpressVPN, IPVanish and HideMyAss, following through with its threat back in March. At the time, ten major VPN providers were ordered to begin blocking sites present in the country's national blacklist -- but almost all of them didn't comply. TorrentFreak reports: When questioned on the timeline for blocking, Roscomnadzor chief Alexander Zharov said that the matter could be closed within a month. If that happens, the non-compliant providers will themselves be placed on the country's blacklist (known locally as FGIS), meaning that local ISPs will have to prevent their users from accessing them. It is not yet clear whether that means their web presences, their VPN servers, or both. In the case of the latter, it's currently unclear whether there will be a battle or not. TorGuard has already pulled its servers out of Russia and ExpressVPN currently lists no servers in the country. The same is true for OpenVPN although VyprVPN still lists servers in Moscow, as does HideMyAss. Even if Roscomnadzor is successful in blocking any or all of the non-compliant services, there are still dozens more to choose from, a fact acknowledged by Zharov.
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Russia Says It Will Soon Begin Blocking Major VPNs More

Russia Says It Will Soon Begin Blocking Major VPNs

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  • It will come for the whole internet. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 07, 2019 @07:39PM (#58728104)

    China yesterday. Russia today. US, AU, Europe tomorrow.

    It's inevitable. The internet has got to be put back in the bottle, according to those who would deem themselves your masters. It was a historical accident that it unfolded like it did, and that personal computing was personal computing rather than data broker and ad agency computing at the time. Those masters were caught off guard.

    But they have learned, and the internet will be slowly turned back into what they want: something to control the masses, not something for the masses to have control.

    We're seeing it all over. One piece here, the next piece there. Two steps forward, three steps back.

    So what do we do? Those who want freedom? Can we start anew? Tunneling over this internet is going to be harder and harder due to blocking and severe consequences for those who try to get around. And if we CAN start anew, how do we prevent the same thing from happening all over again, except much faster this time now that the "masters" are aware of what's possible with computing? How can we get enough people to care about freedom, not just ultimate convenience?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Re "So what do we do? Those who want freedom? Can we start anew?"
      Start a forum, blog, webpage.
      Think about what made the internet great in the past.
      Usenet, IRC, websites, ftp.
      Put a new GUI over tech that worked as it was not in the control of one gov/social media brand.

    • In Soviet Putinstan, Privacy Networks You!

    • China yesterday. Russia today. US, AU, Europe tomorrow.

      In case of the US, it's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube who already do any censoring that's needed, so there's little need to block any VPNs in the US. Not too many know the websites where they can be heard

  • I believe (Score:5, Informative)

    by jwymanm ( 627857 ) on Friday June 07, 2019 @07:42PM (#58728118) Homepage
    It's time that citizens revolt heavily against their governments. Everywhere. Constantly. They need to fear their slave tax payers not the other way around. It's unbelievable people let this happen. Meanwhile governments poke the fingers at businesses, other countries, or rich people as the evil forces and people eat it up.

    • Meanwhile the US government may or may not have just tested an Internet Kill Switch.

      A tool for tyrants, as the article suggests, is more likely to eventually be used for oppression in a crisis than protection from some terrorist.

      Don't build such tools in the first place.

    • There are several reasons why it's not happening in Russia:

      • Russia is huge and the government is primarily in Moscow. However this city which is basically a state within a state where people on average earn twice as much as the rest of the country. Most Moscow inhabitants are OK with the government. And they surely don't care about petty VPN services created by the "enemy" (USA and other Western countries have been portrayed as our enemy in media for many years).
      • Russians are scared of the government: we
    • I am in complete agreement. This current breed of politicians everywhere believe they are invincible, always right. It has to be stopped. Right now.

  • What about personal VPNs? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Just rent a host from any major cloud provider with Russian servers and then install your own VPN server on it. Doubt they'd block firms doing major business there although it's not hard to simply update an IP blocklist. My VPN providers all include Russian servers but not included on the list in the story.

  • For all the focus on the long game in Russia, the leftovers of the cold war are in charge of a helpless population and the door is shutting for another 70 years. It is time to come westward my educated and freedom loving friends that might have seen sunlight in Russia between 1990-2010, but that time is over. Attempting to stay in what is becoming a criminal petro state is appearing to be a foolish idea unless you want a front row seat into a 1920s remix.
  • It wont effect rich folks, I see lots of Chinese with... money. You dont see the rich Russians... lol they see you though :|

  • Has nobody translated 1984 into Russian yet?

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