Roskomnadzor Prepares to Block Additional VPN Services
According to media reports, the Central Bank of Russia has sent a letter to Russian banks stating that “Roskomnadzor plans to implement a set of measures to restrict the use of VPN services.” The authenticity of the letter was confirmed by a manager at one of the credit organizations.
The letter, quoted by Frank Media, says that the regulator is preparing to restrict access to the following VPN services:
- Proton VPN
- VPN Proxy Master
- Browsec VPN
- vpn-super unlimited proxy
- Melon VPN
- Windscribe VPN
- VPN RedCat secure unlimited
Banks have been asked to inform Roskomnadzor about their use of these VPNs by July 11, 2022, “in order to exclude them from access restriction policies.”
It’s worth noting that in June 2022, Roskomnadzor already restricted access to several VPN services, including Proton VPN. After these actions, many users experienced disruptions or complete loss of service. Additionally, according to Roskomsvoboda, since May of this year, many users have reported similar issues accessing Windscribe VPN.
In June, Roskomnadzor’s press service stated that, according to the law “On Communications,” “tools for bypassing blocks of illegal content are considered a threat,” and the Center for Monitoring and Managing the Public Communications Network (CMU SSOP) is taking measures to restrict the operation of VPN services in Russia that violate Russian law.