By banning VPN apps and pressuring tech platforms, the Kremlin is accelerating its long-standing effort to build a tightly controlled sovereign internet—cutting citizens off from the global web.
Paywall Free: https://archive.is/DSNXa
By banning VPN apps and pressuring tech platforms, the Kremlin is accelerating its long-standing effort to build a tightly controlled sovereign internet—cutting citizens off from the global web.
Paywall Free: https://archive.is/DSNXa
That’s a nice, but wrong image.
Russia has had SORM, various versions, since 1999. Yes, it wasn’t in any way as ambitious as the Chinese great firewall, but the processes of FSB interacting with ISPs and the legal base and even some necessary procedures were always there. Now they have TSPU, apparently a few recent widespread problems were caused by it being tested.
They probably want it to be just as little known or noticeable as SORM, so that most Russians would still have the false feeling of security. Russia was past the point of no return somewhere around 2003, but in year 2012 Russian opposition mostly still thought it’s not. Because these people, however horrible they are, do things comprehensively. They never let the mask slip until their victim, the whole country in some cases, has no way out.
I wonder how successful they were over many years in selecting and killing the best people Russia has. How many, how precisely chosen, and whether the country will ever recover.