Russia’s telecommunications and media regulator Roskomnadzor
(RKN) on Thursday introduced restrictions on the operation of
VyprVPN and Opera VPN services in the country.
“In accordance with the regulation on responding to threats to
circumvent restrictions on access to child pornography, suicidal,
pro-narcotic and other prohibited content, restrictions on the use
of VPN services VyprVPN and Opera VPN will be introduced from June
17, 2021,” the state agency said[1]
in a statement.
The watchdog described them as threats in accordance with the
Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 127 dated
February 12, adding the restrictions will not affect Russian
companies using VPN services in continuous technological
processes.
The development comes a little over a month after RKN sent a request[2]
to enterprises and organizations that use the two VPN services to
inform the Center for Monitoring and Management of the
Public Telecommunications Network[3]
and seek exceptions so as to avoid disruptions to their business
operations.
The agency said more than 200 technological processes associated
with 130 Russian companies are included in the “white lists.”
On March 28, 2019, Russian government required[4]
VPNs, anonymizers, and search engine operators to ensure that they
block sites included on Roskomnadzor’s regularly updated register
of banned sites through the Federal State Information System
(FSIS).
To that effect, ten providers of virtual private network (VPN)
servers — including NordVPN, Hide My Ass (HMA), Hola VPN, OpenVPN,
VyprVPN, ExpressVPN, TorGuard, IPVanish, Kaspersky Secure
Connection, and VPN Unlimited — were mandated to connect to the
national blocklist.
According to Russian news agency Interfax[5], Kaspersky Lab was the
only company that complied with the request. Avast, another
cybersecurity vendor, exited[6]
the VPN market following the order.