This year, the government's anti-VPN onslaught has continued. Three: more VPNs, such as Surfshark, shut down their servers in Russia.Īccording to Novaya Gazeta, at least 42 VPN providers have bee “blocked,threatened or disrupted” by the Russian government. Two: Russia took an even more hardline approach to VPN usage, characterized by many a major crackdown. AtlasVPN's Russian-originating installation had risen by 11,253% by 14 March 2022, while Top10VPN chartered a more conservative 2,692%. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, three things happened. The last few years have seen multiple VPNs banned and blocked in Russia, such as ExpressVPN and NordVPN, as the state becomes increasingly authoritarian. Many did not comply and some, such as ExpressVPN, shut down their servers in Russia. In 2019, demands by the government's telecoms watchdog, Roskomador, ordered VPNs to connect to a database of blocked websites or face being blocked themselves. Russia's government takes an authoritarian approach to information and heavily censors citizens' internet usage, and the government has a long history of ordering VPNs to block content from specific websites, as well as blocking VPNs. Unfortunately, there aren't many reputable VPNs left, for use in Russia. However, for journalists, activists, and citizens looking up banned information, using a reputable, trusted VPN is still safer than not using one. Although they aren't technically illegal, using a VPN in Russia comes with major risks – almost all mainstream providers are effectively blocked or banned. VPNs have been closely watched by the Russian government since their usage became widespread. ExpressVPN's are located in Singapore and the UK, for instance.

In 2023, companies like ExpressVPN and Surfshark instead offer “virtual servers” Indian IP addresses that let you unblock content from India, but aren't physically located there. If a VPN company has physical servers on the ground in India today, and claims to keep no logs of user activity, they are either breaking the law or lying. Some of these providers have since set up virtual servers, which give you IP addresses from a specific country (like India) and will let you unblock geo-restricted content from India, but are based in other countries. VPN companies including Surfshark, Proton VPN, NordVPN, as well as ExpressVPN and Atlas VPN shut down their servers in the country in response. The new law came into force in September 2022.

This effectively defeats the privacy value of a VPN. *Although India has not made VPNs illegal, the government recently passed a law requiring tech companies (including VPNs) that process user data (including IP addresses) to store it.

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