Russian authorities were powerless in front of VPN

[DronVR]

Russian authorities were powerless before VPN

The law on the prohibition of bypassing locks via VPN came into force in Russia on November 1, 2017. According to him, the services that should block access to sites banned in Russia are determined by the FSB and other structures that conduct search operations. However, as many Internet experts predicted, once again “something went wrong.”

As [DLMURL="https://anonym.to?https://www.rbc.ru/technology_and_media/20/02/2018/5a8af1fb9a79475ec4680ca4"], a representative of the press service of Roskomnadzor informed [/ DLMURL], to date, the agency has not sent a request to any VPN service or anonymizer to block users from accessing sites that are in the registry of prohibited information. According to federal law 276-FZ, the services that should block access to banned sites in Russia are determined by the FSB and other agencies that conduct operational investigative activities (ORD).

As of today, [DLMURL="https://anonym.to?https://tjournal.ru/66552-rbk-roskomnadzor-priznal-nevostrebovannost-zakona-o-blokirovke-vpn-servisov"] is recognized [/ DLMURL] employee of Roskomnadzor, security officials did not send to the supervisory authority any relevant document on the performance by a particular VPN service or anonymizer of the requirements of federal law 276-FZ:

“As of today, there have been no requests from an ORD participant or state security regarding anonymizers and VPN services.”

Even at the stage of adoption of the law, experts said that it might not work. Roskomnadzor has no leverage over most VPN services, and it is also impossible to block them for non-compliance with the law - the agency does not have technical solutions for this, explained Karen Ghazaryan, an analyst with the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC).

Internet Ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev previously called the bill “insanity” and doubted the possibility of its implementation due to the inability to distinguish which VPNs are used for commercial purposes and which are used to circumvent Internet blocking.

The Association of European Businesses (AEB), which includes Air France, Citibank, Volvo Cars, Deutsche Bank, Nokia and several hundred other European companies, also expressed concern about this law at the end of October 2017, as many companies use VPNs in corporate networks .

“The law describes a specific procedure for initiating coercion of VPN services and other proxy and anonymizing systems into cooperation. Roskomnadzor does not have the right to initiate this procedure itself, this department should receive an instruction about each specific service from the state agencies that carry out the ODS (FSB, MVD, FSO and several other law enforcement agencies). Only after that, Roskomnadzor begins to search and communicate first with a representative of the hosting of a service, then with the service itself, which is given 30 working days to connect to the unloading from the registry of prohibited sites. In the event of a refusal, the supervisory authority initiates the process of including under the blocking the service itself, which refused to filter traffic for its customers from Russia. Formally, Roskomnadzor, of course, can enter Web sites, technical domains and IP addresses of VPN services into the registry, but how effective this can be shown by the current practice of attempts to restrict access to instant messengers (Zello and Line), which Russian users continue to use, despite on their ban in the Russian Federation. "
According to the leading lawyer of RosKomSvoboda, Sarkis Darbinyan, Roskomnadzor has not yet prepared by-laws with information on how personal and corporate VPN services differ:

“The law says that it does not apply to corporate VPNs, but there is no way to distinguish them from services used for personal needs. It is possible that the first blockages will ultimately affect the commercial and banking sectors. ”
Only Russian VPN services and anonymizers have previously expressed their willingness to cooperate with the Russian authorities, which is quite expected, as they may be subject to certain pressure. Representatives of many foreign services initially reported that they would not comply with the requirements of Russian law, and continued to adhere to this position. In the very first days of the entry into force of the VPN regulation law, seven such companies announced this immediately:

1. TorGuard,
2. PrivateVPN,
3. GoldenFrog (creator of VyprVPN),
4. Tunnelbear,
5. Zenmate,
6. TgVPN,
7. ExpressVPN.

In responses to user comments, Browsec indirectly confirmed that the execution of 276-FZ was not part of its plans. Once again, ExpressVPN and PrivateVPN demonstrated their commitment to protecting users, and CactusVPN shared the same point of view, which stated: “We have always maintained freedom of speech and the right to free access to information and privacy on the Internet, and we condemn any actions aimed at restriction of these rights in Russia and any other country. ”