Since the onset of all-out war on Ukraine in February 2022, Russian authorities have dropped a veil of censorship -- both overt and covert -- on news, dissent, and debate about the conflict, not to mention about President Vladimir Putin's leadership.Russians have responded by embracing virtual private networks (VPNs), online tools that shield a user's location and allow them to read unfiltered news free of government interference.That's made Russian regulators, not to mention the country's powerful spy agencies, unhappy. Officials have sought to restrict or even criminalize the use of VPNs.Roskomnadzor, the agency that has spearheaded most of the Kremlin's efforts to clamp down on the Russian segment of the Internet, has reportedly come up with its own novel idea to tackle the problem: a government-run VPN.
"The news is certainly puzzling. A state-backed VPN designed to circumvent restrictions that the state itself imposed seems counterintuitive," said Natalya Kovaleva, a researcher in the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, a London think tank. "While I cannot speak to the technical feasibility of this proposal, I am rather skeptical of this idea."Kovaleva isn't alone."It's just a joke: First you block everything, then you create a state VPN to bypass its blocking," Dmitry Kolezev, an exiled Russian journalist who was convicted in absentia for "discrediting the Russian military," wrote in a post to Telegram. "It's also probably very expensive! As they say, it's very good business."'Helpless And Unfeasible'News of the idea leaked to the online publication The Bell not long after Roskomnadzor pitched the idea at a June 8 meeting that reportedly included leaders from some of Russia's top tech companies.
