Russia’s State Duma has approved a bill introducing sanctions against citizens who search online for content considered ‘extremist’, considering the use of anonymity tools such as VPNs as an aggravating factor. The amendment establishing these measures was included on 14 July, a few days before the second parliamentary reading, in a bill initially focused on administrative violations in the transport and logistics sector(iStories).

VPNs: What They Are and Why They Are Important

VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) are anonymisation and data protection technologies that allow a secure, encrypted connection to be established between the user’s device and a remote server. All Internet traffic is channelled through an encrypted tunnel, which makes it unreadable to providers, governments or third parties. In addition, the VPN hides the user’s real IP address, replacing it with that of the server, making it difficult to trace the user’s identity or location.

VPNs are legally used worldwide by journalists, activists, researchers and ordinary users to protect their privacy, circumvent censorship and access blocked content. Precisely because of their ability to guarantee anonymity and security, these technologies are often opposed by authoritarian regimes, which see them as a threat to their information control.

The Criminalisation of Anonymity on the Net

The new Russian law is not limited to banning the use of VPNs to access censored content: it provides for penalties of up to 80,000 roubles for those who advertise VPN services and up to 500,000 for organisations. Providers and network devices that allow access to blocked resources are also liable to penalties.

The use of a VPN in any computer crime is now considered an aggravating circumstance, effectively turning a personal protection measure into an accusatory element.

The law also prohibits the sharing of SIM cards and online accounts, with the aim of tying every digital identity to a traceable physical user. In a context of increased surveillance, anonymity is treated as suspicious – and punished.

According to various international organisations, this law represents the most extensive and systematic offensive against digital freedom ever implemented in the history of Russia(Amnesty International, HRW).

What is ‘extremism’ according to Russia

In Russia, the concept of ‘extremism’ is used broadly and arbitrarily to target any form of dissent. The authorities include in this category content on social media, religious materials, texts dealing with LGBT issues, or simple cultural expressions.

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s director for Eastern Europe, pointed out that books about homosexual relations, opposition posts or satirical images, such as the meme depicting Putin in make-up on a rainbow background, now officially on the federal list of extremist materials (#4071), can be labelled as extremist.

Extremism and persecution in the occupied territories

This extended definition of extremism is systematically applied in the occupied Ukrainian territories, where the Russian authorities repress any manifestation of Ukrainian identity.

According to Olha Skrypnyk of the Crimean Human Rights Group, the Russian strategy includes detailed instructions to the security services to prosecute Ukrainian citizens, wipe out resistance and destroy all forms of national identity.

Websites, historical documents, school texts and even materials on the Holodomor genocide are banned. In January 2023, all schools in the occupied Luhansk region were ordered to remove a list of ‘extremist’ books, including texts published after the start of the invasion in 2014.

Students using distance learning apps or accessing Ukrainian educational content can be labelled as ‘extremists’.

In this context, repression is even more pronounced: one only has to read Ukrainian news, listen to music in the Ukrainian language or use a VPN to contact family members to face persecution.

According to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, a woman from the occupied Luhansk region was sentenced to 10 years in prison for ‘terrorism and extremism’ after making a donation to a Ukrainian organisation that no longer exists.

In these territories, VPNs are often the only means of information, communication and digital survival.

The Iran Case: When VPNs Are a Necessity

A case in point of the importance of VPNs in authoritarian contexts is Iran, where Internet access was restricted after Israeli air strikes. Despite a formal ban by the Iranian government,VPN usage increased by 707 per cent in just a few days, according to Top10Vpn.

Iranian citizens use them to bypass blocks, access foreign news and communicate safely. Although censorship also affects VPN services, these technologies remain an essential tool for digital survival.

Privacy As A Right To Be Defended

The new Russian legislation represents a serious attack on digital rights and freedom of information. In a world where surveillance is increasingly pervasive, tools such as VPNs are not a luxury or a shortcut: they are fundamental defences for the right to privacy, identity and access to independent sources – and as such, the right to access them anywhere in the world must be guaranteed.

It is crucial that the international community strongly condemns these drifts and offers legal protection and asylum to those persecuted for what they seek or read online. But it is equally important to support research, development and deployment of privacy technologies, such as open source VPNs, encrypted networks and decentralised infrastructures.

From this perspective, the use of end-to-end encryption, now adopted by many secure messaging apps, is a further bulwark against surveillance and censorship.

At a time when even the silent act of informing oneself can cost freedom, digital anonymity has become a human right to be defended.