“Some officials can block websites, which give information about their offshore accounts” (video)
Starting from November 1st the usage of VPN services, through which access to any blocked website is possible, will be banned in Russia. These are the first steps of Russia to limit internet freedom. “Russia follows the example of Chinese or Arabic countries; in fact the internet is deprived of one of its main advantages- free dissemination of information,” says information security expert Samvel Martirosyan. All this started earlier, when Russia decided to block the access to several websites from the territory of its country, “In reality, initially it referred only to the websites, which propagate suicides and extremism, but of course when such a censorship mechanism is created, it becomes more widespread and the media outlets are also limited.” Like in Russia and other countries, which use such methods, according to the specialists, it gives the opposite results. The more obstacles there are, the more the interest grows. Armenia is among few countries, where there is full internet freedom. But after such changes in EEU countries, Armenia should be alert in order to prevent unpleasant changes. “Now it can be good, if some bad websites are blocked, but later some officials can use it and block websites, which provide information about their offshore accounts.” By the way, besides the blocking of VPN, Russian State Duma adopted a law, which bans anonymizers. Hereafter all the internet users must be identified with their phone numbers.
