According to top10vpn.com, 1457 domains are blocked in Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Top10vpn updates the numbers regularly. Among the blocked pages are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, BBC News, Amnesty International, google News and a number of others.

A blocked page is censorship

Russia’s censorship is nothing new. Nor that they engage in state propaganda aimed at both their own population and abroad. A blocked web page is an attempt not to give the Russians access to the information the authorities do not want them to receive. The war in Ukraine Putin wants to present in his own way to his people. He wants to present it as a “military special operation”. Apparently because Ukraine is a Nazi country, like Western Europe and the United States.

Allowing the population access to what is really happening in the neighboring country can be dangerous for the regime. Top10vpn.com also writes that there are almost 50,000 web domains in total in Russia. Also keep in mind that in addition to this number, there are also Russian newspapers, television and radio channels that are closed because they engaged in critical journalism. All this shows that the regime cannot stand a critical spotlight.

VPN in Russia

Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is one way to bypass the blocking of web pages. In Russia, they are trying their best to prevent access to VPN for the people. VPN providers are flexible and it is a very difficult task to block VPN completely.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the number of VPN users in Russia has increased sharply. There is almost a silent war going on between Russia that is trying to block access to all VPNs and VPN providers. VPN is mostly used by the younger ones in Russia who are used to searching for news elsewhere than in the domestic propaganda. The use of VPN is probably related to several factors such as education, income and age.

Sources:

Top10VPN: Websites Blocked in Russia Since Ukraine Invasion

Comparitech: Check if a site is blocked in Russia

WizCase: Russia Blocked 50 VPN Services – Which Still Work?

Wikipedia: Virtual private network