Internet Blocking in Russia: Current Reality
Exploring the real situation with blocked websites and services across Russia today.
Among social networks, we can recall LinkedIn, the professional networking platform. Access to it was restricted due to violations of data protection regulations for Russian citizens. In the media, one of the most resonant cases was the blocking of the Grani website, when the General Prosecutor's Office found calls for illegal protest actions on its pages. Among personal websites, we can mention the Kasparov resource, whose author is Garry Kasparov, a grandmaster who actively and categorically opposes Kremlin policies.
A striking example is Telegram, created by Pavel Durov. This service demonstrated the futile attempts by Roskomnadzor to achieve its complete blocking. In reality, even without taking active measures to bypass blockages, users can independently do so without much difficulty in just minutes. For instance, Telegram was hosted on cloud servers from Amazon, Digital Ocean, and Google. Roskomnadzor specialists began blocking entire IP address subnets, which significantly affected the performance of major Russian websites located on the same servers. After three weeks of active blocking, Roskomnadzor announced the unblocking of 3.5 million IP addresses, but noted that targeted blocking of IPs with Telegram activity would continue. Yet for the average Russian user, Telegram on their smartphone continues to work seamlessly.
Leading companies in Internet traffic and internet technology specialists unanimously state that creating an effective filtering mechanism on the internet is impossible. Essentially, the only viable method for such cases is creating a "whitelist." Sites added to it would be approved, rather than blocked. In practice, a registry is created where only legitimate resources are gradually added, periodically monitored and verified. Even China's "Great Firewall" cannot completely prevent Chinese citizens from accessing banned resources. However, the effectiveness of such mechanisms in China is significantly higher, not due to technical implementation—users there can set up a VPN in minutes and bypass blocks just as easily—but rather due to administrative penalties.
Moreover, if we consider China, it has excellent domestic products on its internal market that match or even exceed Western alternatives in convenience and service quality. For example, when all Western messengers were blocked, the local messenger WeChat launched, used by virtually the entire population with computers and smartphones. The key is that it's not just for communication and photo sharing—you can send money, book appointments at clinics or restaurants, and make purchases through it. The most striking example is perhaps the videos on YouTube showing Chinese beggars requesting donations via WeChat. This illustrates the real strategy: first create an alternative that is competitive or superior, and only then implement strict blocking measures.