Russian lawmakers unanimously adopt first reading of legislation to ban VPNs and Internet anonymizers

Last week Russian lawmakers in the State Duma unanimously adopted the first reading of legislation that would ban technologies that make it possible to circumvent Internet censorship. In the law’s explanatory note, the Duma deputies argue that Russia’s existing system to block illegal content on the Web is “not effective enough.”

363 deputies voted in favor of the draft law, which was recently endorsed by a Duma committee reviewing the legislation.