A bill to ban anomizers has been introduced in the Russian State Duma

The amendments to the law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection", introduced in the lower house on Thursday, June 8, were developed "in order to improve the effectiveness of restricting access to information resources, access to which is legally restricted in Russia," according to an explanatory note to the bill.

The amendments prohibit the owners of so-called anonymizers and VPN services from providing access to websites that are blocked in Russia. Also, according to the amendments, Roskomnadzor is given the right to block websites that will post information on means of circumventing blocking. In addition, the bill requires search engine operators to stop providing links to information resources listed by Roskomnadzor in Russia.

The authors of the document are United Russia MP Maxim Kudryavtsev, Just Russia MP Nikolai Ryzhak, and Communist Andrei Yeshchenko.

In mid-April, the Vedomosti newspaper reported that the bill to ban anonymizers had been drafted by Roskomnadzor at the initiative of the Russian Security Council. At the same time, the newspaper's sources indicated that the technical part of the document was drafted by lawyers from the Media and Communications Union. Their task was to prohibit access to sites with pirated content, which users accessed with the help of special programs.

Last November, Roskomnadzor spokesman Vadim Ampelonsky told RBC that the popular anonymizers Cameleo and Kproxy, which were blocked in the summer, were unblocked after they independently closed access to sites banned in Russia. According to Artem Kozlyuk, head of the Roskomsvoboda public organization, the threat of blocking also forced to limit access to sites from the 2IP.ru register of banned anonymizers.

Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media Alexei Volin, commenting on the blocking of Yandex, VKontakte and other popular Russian resources in Ukraine in May 2017, expressed confidence that "in the near future, hundreds of thousands, and maybe even millions of Ukrainian Internet users will significantly improve their computer literacy, having mastered this is a quick mastering of programs that allow you to bypass the blocking, downloading anonymizers. When choosing between the usual convenience of the user or the fulfillment of an administrative state decision, the citizen always chooses the convenience of the user," the official said. Volin refused to comment on the draft submitted to the State Duma, citing the fact that he has not yet familiarized himself with the document.

Source: rusimperia-inf.ru