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   A new wave of blocks in Russia targets VPN apps and Cloudflare subnets   
      
   Date:   
   Mon, 24 Mar 2025 17:06:31 +0000   
      
   FULL STORY   
   ======================================================================   
    - Russia's Roskomnadzor has intensified internet blocks across the country   
    - Google has reportedly received at least 47 removal request orders so far   
    - Cloudflare subnets were also temorarily blocked, causing large-scale   
   disruptions of major websites   
      
   Internet users in Russia have been suffering a new wave of online disruptions   
   lately, with VPN apps and a major DNS server provider being the targets.    
      
   Starting March 12, 2025, Russia's censor body Roskomnadzor has reportedly hit   
   Google with at least 47 removal orders of VPN apps from its Google Play store.   
      
   A few days later, on March 20, Cloudflare subnets were also temporarily   
   blocked . This causes large-scale outages across multiple Russian regions,   
   with many popular websites going dark. Some VPN services also experienced   
   connectivity issues due to the DNS blocking.    
      
   Digital rights experts across the country now fear that's just the beginning   
   of further blocks. An ever-more restricted internet Android and Windows users   
   in Russia could soon be prevented from downloading almost 50 of the most   
   popular VPN apps in an escalation of VPN censorship in the country.   
      
   Roskomnadzor's fight against VPN apps is nothing new but the scale of    
   Russia's VPN blocking efforts keeps intensifying.    
      
   So, while almost 200 VPNs are already blocked across the country,    
   Roskomnadzor has presented Google with some new removal orders.    
      
   A Russian journalist has counted 47 new requests since March 12, with the   
   likes of HideMyNetVPN, Proxy Shield VPN, and Secure VPN being among the   
   targets. It isn't yet clear if Google has already complied with such orders    
   at the time of writing.    
      
   This new wave of VPN app removal from the Google Play Store follows the same   
   modus operandi that has brought Apple to kill around 60 VPN apps from its App   
   Store in Russia between July and September, bringing the total to 98   
   unavailable applications in the Big Tech giant's official store.    
      
   The orders appear to have been issued under a law enforced in March last    
   year, which criminalizes the spread of information about ways to circumvent   
   internet restrictions  VPNs included. Website outages were observed across   
   Russia this week, with regulators attributing them to issues with foreign   
   servers. Observers said the problems might be tied to Russian government    
   moves to block Cloudflare services.   
      
   Russia's latest crusade against VPN services came at the same time Cloudflare   
   subnets (a group of over 500k IP addresses within the network) were also   
   blocked across the eastern part of the country, from the Urals to Primorye.    
      
   Around 1.5 million IP addresses were impacted  a technical expert for Russian   
   digital rights advocacy group Roskomsvoboda told TechRadar. The likes of   
   TikTok, Steam, Twitch, Epic Games, DeepSeek, Duolingo, and mobile operator   
   sites were all inaccessible without a VPN.    
      
   "VPN services have also experienced problems, as they often have their own   
   management infrastructure linked to Cloudflare," Roskomsvoboda told    
   TechRadar, noting that Warp VPN, which is developed by Cloudflare, also   
   stopped working.    
      
   Commenting to a Russian news agency, Roskomnadzor said officials "will    
   conduct scheduled technical checks of the use of foreign server    
   infrastructure by Russian services and telecom operators."    
      
   While the incident has now been resolved , Roskomsvoboda experts warn that    
   the long-term plan may be blocking Cloudflare completely as Iran did.    
      
   "Judging by the scale of these exercises, this may happen quite soon," the   
   expert told Techradar, explaining that all the mobile apps and online    
   services relying on Cloudflare as a Content Delivery Network (CDN) could soon   
   stop working.    
      
   We contacted Cloudflare for comment but are still waiting for a response at   
   the time of publication.   
      
   ======================================================================   
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/a-new-wave-of-blocks-in-rus   
   sia-targets-vpn-apps-and-cloudflare-subnets   
      
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