The Washington Times | By: Andrew Blake | Friday, June 23, 2017:
Russian lawmakers on Friday unanimously approved the first reading of legislation outlawing virtual private network (VPN) services and other technologies that let internet users bypass Moscow’s ever-expanding blacklist of banned websites.
Lawmakers in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly, voted 363-0 on Friday in favor of adopting amendments regulating VPN services, censorship circumvention software and other so-called “anonymizers,” regional media reported afterwards.
The legislation would ban the use of any software that enables access to digital content otherwise barred by Moscow’s censors if adopted, according to Meduza, an English-language news site devoted to Russian affairs.
“The bill’s sponsors would give the owners of VPN networks and internet anonymizers access to Russia’s registry of blocked online resources, so they could cut access to these websites. Any Internet circumvention tools that refuse to block access to banned resources would themselves be blocked,” Meduza explained.
Violators would be subject to fines ranging from 5,000 to 700,000 rubles — about a maximum of $11,000 — Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported Friday.
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