Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many independent media and social networks have been blocked in Russia. Because of this, more and more people are losing access to high-quality and reliable information.
VPN services help users to circumvent these restrictions and protect their natural right to free access to the Internet, but the authorities threaten to ban them too.
Cryplogger has sorted out the most popular VPNs and tips for bypassing Internet censorship.
The surge in VPN popularity
March 1 Prosecutor General’s Office blocked websites of the Dozhd TV channel and the Ekho Moskvy radio station. On the night of March 4, users from the Russian Federation discovered problems with access to a number of other media – Meduza, BBC, Radio Liberty and Deutsche Welle, as well as to Facebook and Twitter social networks. On March 14, Roskomnadzor restricted access to Instagram, and on March 21, the court completely recognized Meta as an “extremist organization.”
The easiest way to visit blocked sites is to use a VPN. This technology allows nodes to exchange data without being directly connected to each other. The content of user traffic is protected end-to-end encryption and not available to ISPs.
“Structured statistics [по росту использования VPN-сервисов в РФ за последний месяц] no, but they are now certainly experiencing an unprecedented demand,” Artem Kozlyuk, head of the RosKomSvoboda public organization, told Cryplogger.
According to data.ai, as of Monday, March 21, the top 100 most downloaded apps for iOS included 16 VPN services, five of them in the top ten, including in the first and second places. In a similar top for Android, there were 12 VPN services, four of which were in the top ten.
According to Appfigures, in the first week of March, VPN app downloads increased by 1268%. From February 24 to March 5, the top 10 VPN apps on the App Store and Google Play were downloaded over 4.6 million times.
Choosing VPN services
Despite the existence of both paid and free VPN services, the latter, as a rule, do not provide privacy and do not guarantee security.
“If you are offered a free VPN, then your data or stolen money may be the price,” RosKomSvoboda warns.
Therefore, the organization launched website with a list of trusted applications that exclude the possibility of surveillance by the authorities. A paid license allows you to use the service on several devices at once.
ILV declared a number of services listed in the list “blocked” on the territory of the Russian Federation, in the text they are marked with an asterisk
. However, these VPNs are still available to Russian users and continue to work intermittently.ExpressVPN
*
Servers are located in 94 countries.
Compatible with Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, Chromebook, Kindle Fire, Fire TV, Apple TV, Samsung TV, Sony TV, Fire Stick, Chromecast, Roku, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, routers.
- Advantages of ExpressVPN:
- 30-day money-back guarantee;
- no traffic registration, no log storage;
- uses TrustedServer split tunneling technologies (VPN servers do not write data to the hard drive and erase them on each reboot), Network Lock (blocks all Internet traffic if the VPN is turned off);
- have their own anonymous DNS servers;
five devices can be connected at the same time.
Price from $6.67. Payment in bitcoin is possible.
ProtonVPN
ProtonVPN has 1710 servers in 60 countries around the world. Available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chromebook, Android TV, routers.
- Advantages of ProtonVPN:
- 30-day money-back guarantee;
- a proven policy of not saving logs;
- the ability to use to download torrents;
Up to 10 devices can be connected at the same time.
Price from $6.63. Payment in bitcoin is possible.NordVPN
*
NordVPN servers are located in 59 countries. It uses Double VPN, VPN+Tor encryption algorithms to block phishing sites, malware sites and ads.
Works with Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Android TV systems, compatible with routers. Interface in English.
- Benefits of NordVPN:
- 30-day money-back guarantee;
- double VPN and Onion Over VPN traffic encryption functions that allow you to maximize anonymity;
- refusal to register data and maintain logs;
Six devices can be connected at the same time.
Price from $3.29. Payment in bitcoin is possible.
Private Internet Access
Over 29,650 servers in 78 countries. Compatible with iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, routers, browsers. It has a built-in blocker for ads, malware and trackers.
Mobile and desktop applications, as well as a browser extension are available in Russian.
- Benefits of Private Internet Access:
- 30-day money-back guarantee;
- high speed of work;
- suitable for sharing torrent files;
10 devices can be connected at the same time.
The application for iPhone/iPad is not available in Russia. Must be configured via the OpenVPN app.
Price from €1.79. Payment in bitcoin is possible.
Trust Zone
174 servers in 96 zones around the world. Compatible with iOS, macOS, Android, Windows, Linux and routers.
- Benefits of Trust.Zone:
- three-day free trial period;
- 10-day money-back guarantee;
- does not store logs;
- supports torrents;
Up to five devices can be connected at the same time.
Price from $1.99. You can pay in bitcoin with a 10% discount.
Red Shield VPN
Supports 16 locations. The Russian location is implemented safely for users – the servers have Russian IPs, good communication with the Russian Federation, but are located in one of the neighboring countries. Compatible with iOS, macOS, Android, Windows, Linux and routers.
- Benefits of Red Shield VPN:
- 14-day money-back guarantee;
- does not keep logs of connections and traffic;
- encrypts all traffic from the device, including DNS requests;
Up to 10 devices can be connected at the same time.
Price from $5.9. Payment in bitcoin is possible.
Xeovo VPN
31 servers in 16 countries. Compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS.
- Benefits of Xeovo VPN:
- 30-day money-back guarantee;
- does not collect logs and other metadata about clients;
- the ability to control all the necessary connection parameters;
Five devices can be connected at the same time.
Price from €2.99. Payment in bitcoin is possible.
FCK RKN
VPN bot in Telegram. Servers are located in Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, USA and Singapore.
Suitable for use on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux and OpenWrt.
- Advantages of FCK RKN:
- data protection in public WiFi networks;
- does not keep logs;
- support for WireGuard, OVPN and ShadowSocks (+Outline) protocols;
Five devices can be connected at the same time.
Price from $3.3. Payment in bitcoin is possible. Advanced users can buy cloud hosting and set up their own VPN server using free open source projects Outline VPN orAmnesia VPN
.
Outline VPN works on macOS, Linux and Windows using the ShadowSocks protocol. The service allows you to connect external users, guaranteeing the refusal to store logs. In this case, the server owner can set traffic limits for each connection.
Amnesia VPN is compatible with Windows and macOS. At the request of the user, one of the OpenVPN, ShadowSocks, WireGuard or Cloak applications can be deployed on the server. In addition, recently the developers of AmneziaVPN introducedTelegram bot
, which distributes free limited access to the most popular blocked resources. To use it, you need to install the WireGuard application, and import the file that the bot generates into it.
Now the bot works with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Protonmail, BBC, Meduza, Radio Liberty, TJournal, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America and the Librusek library. In the future, the list will expand. If you are looking for a free VPN, look for services that are resistant to deep traffic inspection, such aspsiphon* ,Lantern* , New Node VPN
and others. You can also join petitions
RosKomSvoboda with a call to foreign IT companies to provide Russian users with free access to VPN services. The demand arose against the backdrop of the shutdown of international payment systems in the Russian Federation and the lack of widespread use of cryptocurrencies.
At the time of writing, the petition has garnered 47,743 out of 50,000 signatures.
VPN blocking and bypassing it
In parallel with blocking independent media, Roskomnadzor has been fighting VPN services for a long time.
In June 2021, the agency restricted access to VyprVPN and Opera VPN, and in September to Hola!VPN, ExpressVPN, KeepSolid VPN Unlimited, NordVPN, Speedify VPN, and IPVanish VPN. In December, the RKN blocked Betternet, Lantern, X-VPN, Cloudflare WARP, Tachyon VPN and PrivateTunnel.
On March 22, Senator Andrey Klishas said that the authorities are potentially considering a complete ban on VPN services that allow bypassing the blocking of resources banned in the Russian Federation. There are many ways for the government to stop a VPN from working, both technically and “legally”. However, the difficulty is that this technology is used not only and not so much to bypass locks. According to IT expert Philip Kulin, such services are often used in organizing an internal network of enterprise branches, including critical infrastructure, military-industrial complex
and even law enforcement agencies.
“If services start changing access points (addresses), then it will be problematic to single them out somehow,” he warned.
Some protocols do not have “identification marks” and can only be identified through analysis.
The situation is even more complicated with private VPNs – their addresses are unknown, and cannot be known. It is difficult to identify what a particular service is used for and that it is basically a VPN without collateral damage, the expert added.
He is convinced that it is impossible to block absolutely all VPN services.
“But given the fact that the authorities to some extent do not care about collateral damage, they can create problems to the level of “almost does not work,” Kulin said.
- Among the possible ways to counter blocking, the Cryplogger interlocutor suggests using:
- Private VPNs. The most difficult way, for which you will have to buy virtual machines abroad;
- Protocols with obfuscation (hiding). This function either masks the protocol as another, or adds garbage to the data, which is discarded on the other side, which does not allow statistics to be kept and the protocol to be recognized;
Free VPNs. The user must conduct a thorough analysis and choose an application that he can trust.
At the moment, VPN blocking manifests itself in the inability to either open the service, or use it to access blocked sites.
“Problems with access are individual. Basically, they arise for those services that do not have time to increase server capacity for traffic proxying due to the influx of the user base, ”explained Artem Kozlyuk, head of RosKomSvoboda. The RKN is also trying to influence the operation of a number of VPNs through equipmentTSPU
, which periodically causes failures in individual services. However, many of them, in particular Psiphon and NordVPN, successfully resist blocking.
“All existing difficulties are surmountable. For example, to access a site to download a VPN, sometimes you need to enable a proxy plugin in your browser or use the Tor network,” the expert warned.
Kozlyuk also recommended that users install several VPNs on their computer and phone, and learn how to set up such networks themselves – through the Amnezia VPN and Outline VPN mentioned above. Subscribe to Cryplogger news in Telegram: Cryplogger Feed – the entire news feed, Cryplogger
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