Webpages in the city of Kherson in south Ukraine stopped loading on people’s devices at 2:43 pm on May 30. For the next 59 minutes, anyone connecting to the internet with KhersonTelecom, known locally as SkyNet, couldn’t call loved ones, find out the latest news, or upload images to Instagram. They were stuck in a …
Russia is taking over the Internet in Ukraine’s occupied territories Read More
Virtual private networks (VPNs) are more in use than ever in Russia as a number of social networks and media have been made inaccessible by the authorities. Mobile operator Yota reports that the proportion of its subscribers using VPN services grew 38-fold, reaching 22.8% of the total number of Yota clients, from Jan. 1 to …
VPN use skyrockets as Russia blocks popular social networks and media resources Read More
Among Joe Biden’s options to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine are disruptive cyberattacks—the kind that Russia itself often unleashes on other countries. Even more broadly, sanctions experts have discussed the possibility of cutting countries off from the global internet entirely, the way governments do to stifle unrest in domestic regions. But Russia has been preparing for …
Russia has been preparing to have its internet cut off Read More
Since 2019, cities across Russia have been testing ways to disconnect the Russian segment of the Internet (known colloquially as “Runet”) from the wider global network. Most tests go unnoticed by users, and are only announced post-factum. Russia Beyond explains how Russia is preparing for its own “sovereign Internet” and how the new system differs …
AddictiveTips.com, an online resource on apps, phone and the web, has calculated the cost of broadband Internet relative to users’ income across 37 European countries. Price data came from Cable.co.uk and salary data from Numbeo. Russia ranks 18th as the average broadband expense in this country (€75.65 per year, €6.30 per month) accounts for 1.6% of Russians’ net salary (€4,497 per year, €375 per month). …
At 1.6% of net salary, Russia ranks 18th in Europe for broadband Internet expense Read More
VPN provider Surfshark has issued a research on the “digital quality of life” (DQL) across 85 countries of the world. Revealing the factors that “have the greatest impact on digital well-being,” the study says which areas should be “prioritized to improve the potential” of a country. The countries covered account for 6.3 billion people, or 81% of the …
Report: Russia ranks 42nd for ‘digital qualify of life’ Read More
It’s been two months since Russia passed the sovereign internet law giving it the right to cut Russia from the rest of the online world. Not much has changed, despite fears that the new legislation would usher in an era of strict control. Experts say the Russian legal and administrative systems contains enough loopholes and …
Will Russia enforce its new Internet laws in 2020? Read More
In November 2019, Russia’s so-called “Internet sovereignty law” took effect, requiring all local telecom operators to install special equipment designed to “withstand foreign threats” and block anything added by Roskomnadzor (the federal censor) to the government’s registry of banned online content. The new regulations are still unenforceable in practice, but officials are already testing the …
On December 14 Russian lawmakers Lyudmila Bokova, Andrey Klishas and Andrey Lugovoy submitted to the State Duma draft amendments to the existing legislation to ensure a “secure and stable functioning” of the Internet network. Should these amendments be adopted, the country would use its own domain name system and Internet traffic routing, where only Russian websites would work. …
How Russia could build its own, autonomous Internet Read More
The collateral damage to the Russian economy caused by the Russian authorities’ efforts to block Telegram will reach $1 billion within a few months, according to software company Flexbby, cited by business daily Kommersant and online publication Meduza. The damage is essentially due to the fact that, by blocking of millions of IP addresses, the crackdown on Telegram has affected …
Russian economy could lose $1 billion this year because of the Telegram ban Read More
The Russian Communications Ministry has inspired draft amendments to the telecom legislation, aiming to limit foreign ownership over Internet exchange points to 20%. According to these amendments, domestic ISPs would not be allowed to connect to exchange points that belong to other states, foreign companies or organizations, as well as foreign citizens or Russian nationals with dual citizenship. …
Private Internet Access (PIA), a US-based VPN provider whose users may anonymously visit webpages and bypass site blockings, has announced that has discontinued its Russian gateways and will no longer be doing business in the region. PIA seems to be the first international player to stop activities in the country after the adoption of Russia’s latest “anti-terrorist” legislation. Under this …
