Russia blocks nearly 200 VPN services while spending billions purchasing VPNs for government use

Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor has blocked 197 virtual private network (VPN) services, state-affiliated news agency Interfax reported on Thursday, at the same time as spending on VPN connections for government use reached 14.1 billion rubles (€134 million) in the first nine months of the year, according to Russian business daily Kommersant.

Sergey Khutortsev, a Roskomnadzor official, said on Thursday that the Russian authorities only banned VPN services “used as a means of bypassing blocking”.

VPN technology, which allows connecting remote devices into one private network, is often used to access blocked websites, but it can also be applied to connect devices in different locations via a secure channel.

Roskomnadzor began mass blocking VPN services in 2021, and since March it has been illegal in Russia to share information on how to access prohibited content, including the use of VPN services.

While tightening state censorship of the internet, Russian government agencies have increased their own spending on VPN connections by 683% compared to the same period last year due to the growing number of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and an “increased need to encrypt traffic”, according to Kommersant.

Vasily Danilchik, an expert working for a government procurement firm, told Kommersant, however, that there had been no public contracts for VPNs to access blocked websites and services, noting that such procurements could take place “through closed procedures” for security agencies.

Russia has long been ranked as one of the worst countries for internet freedom by organisations such as Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders. The crackdown on VPNs forms part of a growing trend of online censorship in Russia that has intensified since the start of the Ukraine war.