Russia Cuts Off the Global Internet & VPNs Won’t Help

Penka Hristovska
Updated on: December 12, 2024 Senior Editor

Russia has started trial runs to see if the country could fully operate without relying on the global web, according to reports from European and Russian news outlets.

Over the weekend, it blocked access to foreign websites in several regions, testing how well its national internet infrastructure can handle such restrictions. A report from the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said these internet restrictions primarily impacted regions in Russia with large ethnic minority populations, such as Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia.

People in the affected areas were unable to access both foreign and local apps, including YouTube (one of the last major Western platforms in Russia), Google, WhatsApp, and Telegram — and some services of Russian internet giant Yandex.

According to internet watchdog NetBlocks, the internet disruptions in Dagestan lasted for almost 24 hours. Local reports also revealed that even VPNs, typically used to bypass restrictions, failed to work, signaling a new level of online censorship in the country.

The aim of the sovereign internet tests, as explained by Russia’s internet and media regulator, Roskomnadzor, is to assess whether Russian infrastructure is prepared “to maintain the operation of key foreign and domestic services in the event of intentional external interference.”

“This event is crucial in the possible evolution of online censorship in Russia because it shows what’s technically possible – a very limited internet experience where most common things simply don’t work,” a technical expert from the Russian digital rights group Roskomsvoboda said.
Meanwhile, Russian internet authorities announced that they could restrict access to 8 foreign hosting service providers, including GoDaddy, Amazon Web Services, and HostGator “for failing to comply with their requirements.”
Roskomnadzor argued that the data hosted on these foreign servers “is not always protected from unauthorized access” and that these companies “jeopardize the confidentiality of user data and business security.”