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Roskomnadzor's plans to block various VPN services #76
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From what I can gather, the Opera browser VPN (which is not really a VPN but an HTTP Proxy) has not been blocked by technical means in Russia. Instead, the makers of Opera pushed updates on 2021-06-17 that disabled the browser VPN for users in Russia. Opera's changelogs are silent on the issue, though some moderators on the Opera forums have acknowledged the change. Judging by posts on the Opera forums, the versions that disabled the browser VPN were Opera Desktop 77.0.4054.91 (archive) and Opera GX 76.0.4017.205 (archive) It's been reported in several places, including on the Opera forums (archive), that you can re-enable the browser VPN in Russia by editing a JSON file:
Find the following line, and remove
The fact that an engineer somewhere once sat down, in full awareness, to implement a
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A 2021-06-22 post (archive) on the Roskomsvoboda Tech Talk Telegram channel reports on a letter sent by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, dated 2021-06-15. If my understanding is correct, it says that after Opera VPN and VyprVPN, Roskomnadzor plans to block OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols, and asks that any organization that might be affected by such blocking fill out an online form (archive) according to instructions (archive) by 2021-06-30. Notably, OpenVPN and WireGuard were not mentioned by name in the letter of 2021-03-18, though of course commercial VPN services may be built on those protocols. The Telegram post reads:
The text of the letter:
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Via a post at NTC, an article (archive) by Evgeniya Chernyshova and Daria Chebakova for RBC says that the Central Bank of Russia contacted banks on 2021-08-26 about Roskomnadzor's plan to soon block Psiphon, Tunnelbear, Thunder, and Redshield. The banks have until 2021-09-02 to advise the Central Bank of any disruption the blocking of these VPN services might cause. As the article notes, this is consistent with the advance warning banks got about the blocking of VyprVPN and Opera VPN in May and June 2021. Besides those two, the article lists Hola! VPN, ExpressVPN, KeepSolid VPN Unlimited, NordVPN, Speedify VPN and IPVanish VPN as having been previously blocked. Of the four services listed, only Psiphon is present in the letter of 2021-03-18.
Remainder of the article translated to English
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A user at NTC pointed me to a Roskomnadzor press release from last week regarding the above-listed services. Is anyone from one of these VPN services able to comment? The press release says that over IP addresses have been whitelisted to use VPNs; I wonder if VPN companies would rather cease operating in Russia, or continue running for sake of those few IP addresses. Roskomnadzor press release of 2021-09-03https://rkn.gov.ru/news/rsoc/news73836.htm (archive)
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This is an attempted synthesis of information that is spread across a few NTC threads over the past 5 days. I've linked to the points in the threads where the topic starts.
Since 2021-09-03 there are reports of WireGuard being blocked intermittently in Russia, possibly by UDP protocol signature. Recall that WireGuard, along with OpenVPN, was mentioned in a 2021-06-15 letter from the Ministry of Education and Science.
Some quotations: 2021-09-03 https://twitter.com/CuredFisH/status/1433705620507611177 (archive)
2021-09-03 https://www.opennet.ru/openforum/vsluhforumID3/125174.html#9 (archive)
2021-09-05 https://qna.habr.com/q/1043670 (archive)
2021-09-06 https://ntc.party/t/vpn/1107/15
2021-09-07 https://qna.habr.com/q/1043670#comment_2846778
2021-09-07 https://qna.habr.com/q/1043670#comment_2846842
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I followed up with this poster, who clarified that they believe this matching pattern was actually intended for BitTorrent—which was also disrupted at the same time as WireGuard—and that WireGuard was caught up accidentally. Having looked at the protocol specifications today, the overlapping matching rule seems plausible, but it does not explain the observations that WireGuard was found not to work in many ISPs, and BitTorrent reportedly had problems only on Rostelecom. |
Via a post at NTC and an article at Meduza (archive), a new press release from Roskomnadzor announces the pending blocking of six more VPN services. This time, the list includes Betternet, Lantern, X-VPN, Cloudflare WARP, Tachyon VPN, and PrivateTunnel. The press release is practically a copy of an earlier one from 2021-05-14, the one advising of planned blocking of Opera VPN and VyprVPN. It asks companies that use VPN services to inform Roskomnadzor by email if their blocking will be disruptive to the companies' business. My understanding is that Roskomnadzor has not yet attempted to block the six listed services technically. The Meduza article says "когда именно будут заблокированы сервисы, не уточняется" "it is not specified exactly when the services will be blocked". Roskomnadzor press release of 2021-12-02https://rkn.gov.ru/news/rsoc/news73968.htm (archive)
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It's reported that Cloudflare WARP and NordVPN were blocked on 2022-03-16. I am not sure whether the blocking on March 16 was targeted at these two services specifically, or if they were caught in a more general blocking of the WireGuard protocol. Cloudflare WARP is WireGuard and NordVPN can use WireGuard. What about other WireGuard VPNs, like Mullvad? Does anyone have more information? Recall that last year, users in Russia reported disruptions in WireGuard on some ISPs between September 3 and September 8—though we guessed that it might have been an unintended side effect of BitTorrent blocking. Roskomnadzor had made a press release on 2021-09-03 declaring an intention to block NordVPN, and another on 2021-12-02 about Cloudflare WARP. But apparently the services had not actually been technically blocked, until last week. https://www.comss.ru/page.php?id=10291 (archive)
https://runews24.ru/internet/17/03/2022/879a2df82befa6d7f9d7045963ac42dc (archive)
Users on NTC also reported problems, starting 2022-03-16 14:00 UTC. https://ntc.party/t/warp-cloudflare/1236/19
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0ka at NTC clarifies that on at least two networks, the blocking is of WARP specifically. The WireGuard protocol is not generally blocked, and the WARP endpoint IP addresses are not blocked; it is only the combination of the WireGuard protocol and the WARP IP addresses that is blocked. |
In the past few weeks there was reported blocking of Windscribe VPN and Proton VPN. On 2022-05-26, Windscribe tweeted (archive) that it was being blocked in Russia. https://tjournal.ru/news/634219-vpn-servis-windscribe-rasskazal-chto-ego-mogli-zablokirovat-v-rossii-polzovateli-zhalovalis-na-sboi-v-rabote (archive)
On 2022-06-03, Windscribe deployed some unspecified experimental mitigations (archive). Proton VPN started to be blocked on 2022-06-01. There is a thread on NTC about it, with technical information: https://habr.com/ru/news/t/669186/ (archive)
Unusually, Roskomnadzor acknowledged the block of Proton VPN, admitting that it is part of a larger plan of blocking VPNs. https://www.interfax.ru/russia/844320 (archive)
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ZenMate Ban |
From NTC, another letter (dated 2022-10-28) requesting information on the use of VPNs, this time from the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media. I am not sure of its source.
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Habr (archive) and NTC report that Surfshark VPN stopped working in Russia 2022-12-11.
As was the case with Proton VPN in June 2022, Roskomnadzor indirectly acknowledged the block of Surfshark: https://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/63971e8f9a79478c62280399 (archive)
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The Habr article on Surfshark mentions a letter from 2022-10-11 that is not documented here yet. The letter announces plans to block CyberGhost VPN, McAfee VPN, QuarkVPN, UltraSurf, Super Unlimited Proxy, ZenMate VPN, VPN Russia, VPNhub, and "several others" (ряд других). The source is a post on the Telegram channel @rusbrief. I did not find a copy of the actual text of the letter. https://t.me/s/rusbrief/61131 (archive)
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Also linked from the Habr article on Surfshark, on 2022-11-07 Kaspersky Labs announced that their VPN Kaspersky Secure Connection would be withdrawn from operation by December 2022. The Kaspersky announcement does not mention VPN restrictions or give any other reason.
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There is a recent thread on NTC reporting blocking of Mullvad VPN, whether using OpenVPN, Wireguard+UDP, or Wireguard+TCP. https://ntc.party/t/mullvad-vpn/4285/1
https://ntc.party/t/mullvad-vpn/4285/2
https://ntc.party/t/mullvad-vpn/4285/4
https://ntc.party/t/mullvad-vpn/4285/6
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Via a post on NTC, a post on Habr (archive) links to a Word document with instructions on filling out a form to request exemption from VPN blocking for an organization.
https://svod.minobrnauki.gov.ru/index.php?newsid=74 (archive)
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This is a summary of the NTC thread RKN [Roskomnadzor] will try to block the following VPN services.
On 2021-04-15, there appeared what appears to be an internal email of a Russian bank dated 2021-03-18 (91 days ago). The email contains a list of 26 VPN and VPN-like services that Roskomnadzor plans to block in 2021 and 2022, and asks whether such blocking will have any effect on business operations.
On 2021-05-14 (34 days ago), Roskomnadzor made a press release corroborating the first two entries on the list (Opera VPN and VyprVPN), and the fact that organizations had been asked whether VPN blocking would cause disruption.
Today, 2021-06-17, Roskomnadzor issued another press release announcing the beginning of restrictions on Opera VPN and VyprVPN by the authority of a government decree of 2020-02-12. The press release confirms the 2021-03-14 date of companies having been contacted about possible business disruption, and says that 130 companies' use of VPNs has been whitelisted. But at a first glance, no IP addresses or domain names associated with Opera VPN or VyprVPN have appeared on the public Roskomnadzor blocklist, and both appear to still be accessible.
Email of 2021-03-18
https://ntc.party/t/rkn-will-try-to-block-the-following-vpn-services/1022/1
Roskomnadzor press release of 2021-05-14
https://rkn.gov.ru/news/rsoc/news73628.htm (archive)
Roskomnadzor press release of 2021-06-17
https://rkn.gov.ru/news/rsoc/news73700.htm (archive)
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