Russia Ramps Up Internet Censorship

Executive Summary:

• Russia is heavily investing in domestic technologies like deep packet inspection and VPN-blocking algorithms to block 96 percent of civilian virtual private network (VPN) traffic by 2030, advancing its “Sovereign Internet” initiative for stricter internet control.
• The government is developing a centralized platform for cyber defense and fraud prevention, alongside a nationwide vulnerability scanning system, in response to increasing cyberattacks, particularly from Ukrainian hackers.
• Russia’s national intranet and internet control measures could become a blueprint for other authoritarian states, bolstering global anti-internet freedom trends through collaboration with allies like China, Iran, and North Korea.

The Central Bank of Russia sent a letter to financial institutions on November 13 explaining plans to conduct an exercise disconnecting the RuNet (the Russian Internet) from the international network. Roskomnadzor, the Russian Communications Authority, stated that such exercises are held annually to confirm the readiness of the RuNet “to ensure the availability of key foreign and Russian services in case of intentional external influences.” The testing will take place in December to determine how seamlessly Russian systems dependent on the global internet can be disconnected from the outside world (T.me/kolezev; Kommersant, November 14). Roskomnadzor plans to spend 60 billion rubles ($600 million) over 5 years to develop the nation’s internet surveillance and cyber defense capabilities (CA News, September 10). Eighty percent of the money will be spent upgrading “Technical Measures for Countering Threats” (TSPU). This system is required to be installed by law at all Russian internet service providers and updated annually with new “black box” monitoring equipment. This hardware is installed by Russia’s General Radio Frequency Center (GRFC), an agency responsible for the development and implementation of many of RuNet’s repressive internet measures (see EDM, September 3). Russia’s intensifying internet censorship efforts aim to bolster digital sovereignty and cyber defense, raising concerns about internet freedom.

According to drafts reviewed by the Russian press, the plan to develop Russia’s internet surveillance and cyber defense capabilities will also spend 6 billion rubles ($60 million) to create a unified platform for fighting cyberattacks and fraud under the control of the Ministry of Digital Technology. Anonymous specialists at leading Russian banking institutions expressed concerns that such a unified platform would become a method to control financial transactions and decide which transactions will be allowed to go through. Furthermore, by placing so much data in one place, the proposed platform would make Russia’s financial system more vulnerable (Kommersant, October 1).

Since the adoption of Russia’s “Sovereign Internet” law in 2019, the construction of its elaborate internet censorship system has been undertaken by a small network of contractors working to develop as much of the technology domestically as possible for necessary deep packet inspection and traffic routing. This is a significant shift from five years ago, when most of the original technology for the system was being imported (see EDM, February 15; CNews, July 10). 

To implement the 2019 law, a company called “Data-Center for Processing and Automation” (DTsOA) was created by Rashid Ismailov, the former Russian Vice Minister of Communications. Ismailov has held leading roles at the Russian affiliates of Western companies, including as the head of Nokia Russia and Ericsson’s Director of Network Construction and Development (RBC, September 26, 2019). Branch companies of Rostelekom, Russia’s state telecommunications company, and the sanctioned information technology (IT) giant ICS Holding are developing other relevant technologies (CNews, July 10). As a result, the head of the GRFC Special Projects Laboratory, Sergei Temnyi, announced in June 2024 that import substitution has successfully fulfilled TSPU technology requirements (Securitylab.ru, September 10).

The new state budget released in September seeks to increase the rate at which civilian use of virtual private networks (VPNs) is blocked through machine learning algorithms, with plans to reach a successful block rate of 96 percent by 2030. These censorship technologies have already been introduced and have successfully blocked various commonly used encryption methods by commercial VPN providers selling personal VPN access. GFRC claimed last year to have successfully blocked 90 percent of civilian VPNs, which has been partially confirmed by Russian internet freedom activists (Interfax, October 25, 2023; Bumaga, July 15).

Parallel with the efforts to end civilian access to non-sanctioned encryption is a project to fortify Russia’s computer networks against cyber-attacks by developing a nationwide vulnerability scanning system for infrastructure exposed to the internet (CNews, October 25). The need for such a system has dramatically increased since the onset of Russia’s war against Ukraine, as Ukrainian hackers have relentlessly targeted Russian organizations with hacking attacks that have led to data theft and leaks, as well as mass data destruction. Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, estimated that personally identifiable information, such as phone numbers and email addresses, has been leaked for 90 percent of the Russian population. Another investigation found that in 2023 alone, 240 million Russian phone numbers and 123 million email addresses were leaked (Izvestiya, January 17). This stolen data is fed into Ukraine’s sprawling call fraud ecosystem, which peaked in February 2024, when 20 million calls targeting Russian citizens were made every 24 hours (RBC, February 6). Testimony provided to Ukraine’s parliament last year estimated that up to 2,000 such call centers are in operation, resulting in significant financial losses for the Russian economy (Informator.ua, July 26, 2023).

The budget proposals and technologies continue to develop in the background of Russia’s broader sovereign internet project, with the plan to eventually have a national “intranet” that could be disconnected from the global internet. These trends are important to monitor, as the model of a national internet and domestically developed technologies to enable the censorship regime will likely be exported to other authoritarian states as more governments turn against internet freedom and technology transfer continues to increase between Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.