Roskomnadzor announced the blocking of VyprVPN and Opera VPN services

For the first time, Roskomnadzor took action against VPN services that did not stop access to content prohibited in Russia.

On June 17, 2021, Roskomnadzor announced that it had introduced restrictions on the use of VyprVPN and Opera VPN VPN services.

According to the agency, the blocking was carried out "in accordance with the regulations for responding to threats to bypass restrictions on access to child pornography, suicidal, pro-drug and other prohibited content."

Roskomnadzor also clarified that VyprVPN and Opera VPN are classified as "threats to the stability, security and integrity of the operation" of the Internet, in accordance with government decree No. 127 of February 12, 2020 "On approval of the Rules for the centralized management of a public communication network."

In addition, the department said that the "white lists" included more than 200 technological processes of 130 Russian companies using these VPN services. Their blocking will not affect. Roskomnadzor is ready to quickly expand the "white lists" at the request of business.

Opera has announced that it is suspending support for VPN services in its browsers in Russia "in the form in which it was previously provided."

Note that in April, a list of 26 VPN services was published that Roskomnadzor allegedly planned to block in 2021-2022. VyprVPN and Opera VPN topped this list.

The Anti-Block Bypass Act was passed in 2017. It obliges VPN services found by law enforcement agencies to provide the ability to bypass restrictions on access to prohibited content in Russia to connect to the federal state information system (FSIS) with a register of prohibited sites. For evading the requirements of this law, VPN services are blocked at the level of Internet providers in Russia, which, however, does not apply to government agencies and technological processes in business.

In 2019, Roskomnadzor sent requests to 10 VPN services to connect to FSIS, nine of them refused to comply with these requirements. However, so far Roskomnadzor has not blocked them. Now, the department has begun blocking using Decree No. 127 , which is a by-law to the law on the "sovereign Internet". Previously, this ruling slowed down access to Twitter.

Sources

• About taking action against services to circumvent the restriction of access to illegal content // Roskomnadzor website. 2021. June 17.
• RKN introduced restrictions on the use of VPN services VyprVPN and Opera VPN // Habr. 2021. June 17.
• Opera has suspended support for VPN services in browsers in Russia // TASS. 2021. June 17.