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IT Technology

Russia Plans To Block VPN In March 2024 (reuters.com) 150

Russia's communications watchdog plans to block VPNs from March 1 next year, a Russian senator for the ruling United Russia party said on Tuesday. From a report: Demand for VPN services soared after Russia restricted access to some Western social media after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Senator Artem Sheikin said an order from the Roskomnadzor watchdog would come into force on March 1 that would block VPNs. "From March 1, 2024, an order will come into force to block VPN services providing access to sites banned in Russia," Sheikin was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA.
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Russia Plans To Block VPN In March 2024

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  • by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @05:06PM (#63900539)

    smuggled Barbie Movies for you, you will watch Russian propaganda on Ukraine and thank us for it!!!

    Sometimes I feel disdain for how much the Russian public is willing to tolerate from Putin, but their endearing feature is that they really do wish there were living in the West. Just need for them to figure out what has to happen for Russia to become part of the West

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @05:35PM (#63900613)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Re:No more... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by edi_guy ( 2225738 ) on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @06:15PM (#63900691)

        " it's essentially a third world country outside of St. Petersburg and Moscow, " That's very true, and all the other stuff you mentioned that goes along with it. And, the Russian (internet) TV is off-the-hook crazy as you mentioned. I really don't think people get the intensity and duration of the propaganda machine. 99% of that population are not watching the Ukraine victory videos we are seeing on Youtube. People in the Russian boondocks don't have a clue what's going on. Though to be fair, the Ukrainians are very much still the underdogs in this war, and some Youtube T-90 tank turret vids won't change the fact Russia still has the capacity to lay waste to Ukraine for years to come.

        I would also say that those in the metro centers are still benefitting from Russia being a petro state. That oil money that Putin stocked up on for nearly seven years is still working, and they are still selling oil today in a $5 gallon gas market (thank you Saudi Arabia...no wait...eff you Saudi Arabia) . Yes they are getting only 2/3rds the going rate for oil since China is twisting screws on them, but it's enough to keep the Russian proletariat happy for now. Or at least sated enough that they aren't going to risk their livelihoods and go protest or something.

        Prigozhin should have gone all the way to Moscow. Once he left Rostov-on-don and downed a couple airplanes he was condemned. Better take your chances, oust Putin, install some other politician from the Duma, and live to see another year.

        I do think Russians want to live a Western lifestyle, but their pride and a bizarre unwillingness to let go of the strong man leader crap sinks them every time.

        • Except that oil revenue is no longer helping anybody except corrupt oligarchs. Russian petroleum revenues are approximately $100B/yr. Prior to the invasion, Russian military spending was $40B/year. However, military spending is supposedly increasing 70% next year and energy revenue is declining so very soon all of the energy revenue will be going to the military. And most other Russian exports are not accepted in most places.

          Very quickly we will see Russia revert to how things were during the Soviet U

        • And, the Russian (internet) TV is off-the-hook crazy as you mentioned.

          I do not doubt that this is true. I would like to see some of it (with translations), so I can understand the types of manipulation used and then compare it with the types of manipulation we have here in the West. Do you know of any source for this? (Why does the West engage in manipulation at all? Is there no respect for the individual?)

        • by mjwx ( 966435 )

          Prigozhin should have gone all the way to Moscow. Once he left Rostov-on-don and downed a couple airplanes he was condemned. Better take your chances, oust Putin, install some other politician from the Duma, and live to see another year.

          It's clear he didn't get the political support he wanted, so advancing would have been pointless, he'd be hung instead of poisoned/falling off a balcony/plane crash.

          I do think Russians want to live a Western lifestyle, but their pride and a bizarre unwillingness to let go of the strong man leader crap sinks them every time.

          I think the Russian people do want to live a western lifestyle as well... However what the Russian people want is absolutely immaterial to the Russian government. Just because they vote doesn't mean they're a democracy. They're still an oligarchy (maybe Kleptocracy would be more fitting) where the wealthy and powerful get to make all the decisio

    • Why do you think they have twice the police force per capita as the US. Hint... it isn't to fight crime in the context of theft, homicide, etc.

    • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @05:44PM (#63900625)

      smuggled Barbie Movies for you, you will watch Russian propaganda on Ukraine and thank us for it!!!

      For you, new totally original hit Russian movie coming soon! x 2!!

      Olga - heartwarming story about woman who lives in decadent pretend world, think she happy. Then she is forced into modern real Russian world - hijinks ensue as she learn REAL happiness is loving Mother Russia!

      Kurchatov - heroic story about Russian nuclear bomb father!

      Already trending on patriotic Russian social media! Many people rave about Olgatov!

      P.S. Bite my shiny Soviet ass!

      • Check out the NPR story, transcript follows: [npr.org]

        MAYNES: Culture Ministry officials, in turn, argue Russians should be enjoying Russian-made films, ones that reflect Russian values and tell stories that affect Russian lives.

        (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SVIDETEL")

        UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character, speaking Russian).

        MAYNES: Films like "Svidetel," or "Witness," a fictionalized version of the start of the war in Ukraine. It portrays Kyiv as a city overrun by modern-day fascists preparing an attack on the Russian homeland

    • Russia is becoming more and more like North Korea. And outside of relevant cities, it pretty much is.

      Most of what the West knows about Russia is Moscow and Petersburg. Maybe some other large cities west of the Ural. This changes considerably if you get deeper into Russia and further away from outside influence (i.e. reality). People there really don't have any source of information other than what the state propaganda provides. They do believe what they're told because that's all they have.

    • Sometimes I feel disdain for how much the Russian public is willing to tolerate from Putin

      While Russia is subjectively and objectively a worse place to live for the average person, I would have to say the same thing about the American public. Converting Social Security funds into debt rather than cash on hand, the Savings and Loan situation, the invasion of Iraq, etc. How did the American public sit idly by while all of that shit was going down? The vast majority of us are effectively much more poor than we were in the 1960s... and nothing.

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      smuggled Barbie Movies for you, you will watch Russian propaganda on Ukraine and thank us for it!!!

      Sometimes I feel disdain for how much the Russian public is willing to tolerate from Putin, but their endearing feature is that they really do wish there were living in the West. Just need for them to figure out what has to happen for Russia to become part of the West

      The thing about Russia is that the people are quite happy to accept a boot on their necks as long as it is a Russian boot.

      The rest of the former Soviet Union (Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Romanian, et al.) are emphatically not.

      This is likely going to hurt Putin as it makes the strongman look weak. However he's not worried about the people, rather his oligarch buddies who are losing money over his "3 day special military operation" of which we are past day 550.

  • If they see an encrypted (essentially random) data stream to a location they don't know about, they can just come get you if they want. They don't have to prove anything.

    So anyone who thinks they can say "Well, they can't KNOW I'm accessing a VPN because it's encvrypted" isn't understanding how Russia works. All they have to see is that they don't know what you're doing.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I don't believe you understand how VPN and proxy technologies work.

    • Some years ago, I traveled to Beijing. My OpenVPN connections were blocked -- even on non-standard ports. It appeared that there was some traffic analysis that recognized it as not just encrypted, but also that it was a VPN. However, SSH wasn't blocked, so I used that.

    • All they have to see is that they don't know what you're doing.

      And that is a most serious crime.

  • In Soviet Russia, VPN blocks you
  • They have the means but not the balls.
    • by CaptainDork ( 3678879 ) on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @07:54PM (#63900875)

      I had to look it up:

      Domain fronting was a technique used to obscure internet traffic but was discontinued by Cloudflare and others due to potential abuse.

      - Domain fronting involves hiding the true endpoint destination of web traffic by routing it through an allowed domain as an intermediary.

      - For example, traffic to a banned site would be routed through a domain like Facebook or Google as a front, since those are allowed by censors.

      - This allowed people in repressive regions to secretly access prohibited sites and services by using major whitelisted domains as fronts to mask where data was actually going.

      - However, domain fronting was also susceptible to abuse by bad actors for malicious goals.

      - In 2018, Google and Cloudflare discontinued support for domain fronting on their services to prevent misuse through their platforms.

      - This was controversial, as it disabled a key mechanism activists and journalists relied on to circumvent state censorship.

      - But the companies argued domain fronting's potential for enabling criminal/terrorist activity posed an ethical dilemma they were not comfortable with.

      • CloudFlare's responsibility is to their customers. I wouldn't want my domain to be used for domain fronting. And, ultimately, this practice would lead to "allowed" domains being blocked. It's a cat and mouse game with authoritarian regimes. And the regimes will always win as they are willing to send people to gulags on even a suspicion of accessing banned content. Look at North Korea. Sure some people have access to western movies and the like. But many people get sent to hard labor camps for it. It
  • As he will soon find out.
    • For every asshole who has a computer, there's another asshole with a computer. People are way smarter than the computers they use.

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