The Russian government is demanding that 10 major VPN services connect their services to a state content-filtering system or face a ban.
On Thursday, Russia's telecommunications regulator, Roskomnadzor, announced it had sent notices to companies demanding they fall in line with Russian law, including NordVPN, ExpressVPN, VyprVPN, TorGuard, and Hide My Ass.
If the VPN providers fail to comply within 30 working days, the Russian regulator has threatened to block internet access to their services.
In 2017, Russia passed a law cracking down on VPNs, which can be used to circumvent online censorship by accessing servers in other countries. It requires VPN providers to register with Roskomnadzor and block access to websites the government has banned. Those who refuse will be blocked.
Roskomnadzor, however, has not actually demanded that VPN services connect to the state system, which is used to enforce the country's online censorship, until now. It's not clear why there was a delay, but according to the head of VyprVPN, the Russian regulator was likely trying to approach the problem by first forcing internet service providers to block access to VPN services. Google has also been pressured to comply with Russia's censorship demands.
"Now they (the Kremlin) are looking at the VPNs and trying to pressure them directly, similar to what China has been doing," according to Sunday Yokubaitis, CEO of Golden Frog, which runs VyprVPN.
Golden Frog was among the VPN providers that told PCMag they had received a notice yesterday to register with Roskomnadzor. However, Yokubaitis said his business, which is incorporated in Switzerland, doesn't plan on complying. "Our core mission is to keep the internet open and free, so VyprVPN will continue to provide uncensored access to the internet," he said.
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TorGuard has responded to Roskomnadzor's demand by removing all the company's physical servers in Russia, it wrote in a blog post. This was likely done as a precaution in the event Russian authorities try to seize the hardware.
"We have wiped clean all servers in our Saint Petersburg and Moscow locations and will no longer be doing business with data centers in the region," TorGuard wrote. "Our networking team is currently deploying additional servers in neighboring countries to ensure fast VPN download speeds for everyone in the region."
Other providers such NordVPN told PCMag they're still considering what actions to take. "Nevertheless, I would like to stress out, that one of the key features of NordVPN is zero log policy which we strictly follow and will be following everywhere in the world," said a company spokesperson.
GoldenFrog's CEO told PCMag that the company still intends to serve its Russian customers. However, Yokubaitis suspects the Kremlin will begin importing more censorship technology from China in an effort to control content on the country's internet.
"If the Russian government decides to use the Great Firewall technology against us, we are prepared to fight any of their efforts to censor internet access just as we have done in China for many years," he added.
Other VPN providers contacted by Roskomnadzor are Hola VPN, Openvpn, IPVanish, Kaspersky Secure Connection, and VPN Unlimited.