Russian censorship agency threatens to block VPN services ‘within a month’ if they do not comply with its website blacklist 

Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov said in an interview with Interfax that nine VPN services may be blocked on Russian territory “within a month” if they do not comply with the federal censorship agency’s demands. Roskomnadzor contacted each of the VPN providers in question at the end of March 2019 to demand that they subscribe to its registry of banned websites within 30 business days. Only one, Kaspersky Secure Connection, has complied, Zharov said.

“All the rest haven’t responded. They’ve even written on their websites that they will not follow Russian law. And the law says unambiguously that if a company does not follow the law, it must be blocked,” he explained. Zharov did not specify exactly what deadline he had in mind for the VPN companies but said his agency would still attempt to contact five of them.