Critics have accused Russia of attempting to neuter the internet as a political threat after the authorities launched a crackdown on virtual private networks (VPNs).

VPN services and apps allow internet users to appear as if they are in a different country to the one in which they are physically located, which helps with anonymity and also enables users to access sites blacklisted in particular countries.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, signed a law on Sunday to impose tougher restrictions on VPN providers, forcing them to comply with Russia’s list of blacklisted sites, in what was ostensibly a move to help fight extremism.

The same law also requires messaging apps to be linked to phone numbers, making it easier to identify users.



“I think the regulation is a bit outdated and very difficult to implement,” said Andrei Soldatov, the author of a recent book on the internet in Russia. “But this law is still very dangerous, because it means all the internet service providers will be in violation, and this will be a good tool with which to put pressure on them.”

Russia’s internet watchdog, Roskomnadzor, maintains a list of thousands of blacklisted websites.

The VPN provider Private Internet Access, which removed its servers from Russia last year after some were seized by the government, said it would not comply with any such order.

“The newly signed law will likely be used to compel VPNs to go against their ethos and censor what the Russian government wants,” it said in a blog post.



China has also begun a crackdown on VPN services in recent months. The Russian initiative is different to the Chinese law in that it does not ban VPN products.

Soldatov said the legislation would be unlikely to convince international VPN providers to comply, and said the Tor software, which allows anonymous browsing, was “the elephant in the room” and very difficult to control.

He said to really ensure Russians were unable to access blacklisted sites, the government would have to implement a much more sophisticated filtering system.

Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who exposed US government surveillance programmes and now lives in Russia, criticised the law.

“Banning the ‘unauthorized’ use of basic internet security tools makes Russia both less safe and less free. This is a tragedy of policy,” Snowden tweeted. He added:

If the next generation is to enjoy the online liberties ours did, innocuous traffic must become truly indistinguishable from the sensitive. — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) July 31, 2017

Rights groups also criticised the move.



“Anonymity protects the rights of internet users and freedom of expression online,” said Yulia Gorbunova, a Russia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These laws negatively affect the ability of tens of millions of Russians to freely access and exchange information online.”



Amnesty International said it was the latest step in a “shameful campaign” against the internet in Russia, and compared the legislation to Chinese bans on VPNs.

In July it was reported that the Chinese government had ordered the country’s three telecoms companies to block access to VPNs completely by February next year. Last weekend, two VPN providers said Apple had told them it was removing their apps from its app store in China.

