Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that basically prohibits anonymous web surfing in his country.
In fact, with 1 in November, it bans the forms of technology that allow anonymous access to prohibited websites in Russia. This prohibition covers services that allow people to use the internet anonymously, such as virtual private networks (VCPNs) and proxies, and requires internet service providers to block websites that host these services.
Leonid Levin, Russian chairman of the parliamentary committee on information and communication policy, told the news agency RIA Novosti that the law 'includes only the restriction of access to information already prohibited by law or by a judicial decision'.
Η black list ιστοσελίδων της Ρωσίας, που εισήχθη το 2012, προοριζόταν αρχικά να εφαρμοστεί σε ιστοσελίδες που είχαν περιεχόμενο με παράνομα ναρκωτικά, παιδική πορνογραφία, και αυτοκτονίες, αλλά το 2013 επεκτάθηκε σε οποιοδήποτε περιεχόμενο «ύποπτο εξτρεμισμού». Η τροποποίηση επιτρέπει την ευέλικτη ερμηνεία, και αφήσει τη Ρωσία να απαγορεύσει κάθε υλικό που επικρίνει τις opinions του εκάστοτε κυβερνήτη ή φαίνεται να αποδυναμώνει την εξουσία της governments.
2015, for example, Russia banned briefly Reddit and the Wikipedia along with pages that have content about drug use. At the time, Nikolai Kononov, editor-in-chief of the digital magazine SecretMag.ru said that these moves were less about the content of the websites and more about showing that they can ban whatever they want, whenever they want. It's a show of intimidation."
Russia is not the only country that banned tools for anonymity Web surfing, such as VPNs. This month China announced that it would restrict unauthorized VPNs, and recently, all VPN applications have moved away from the Apple App Store version in China.