The authority to implement an ISP blockade was granted at the Saratov District Court back in 2017 but local telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor only alerted Tor Project to imminent blocking early December 2021. Tor was branded “an absolute evil” by the chairman of the State Duma’s Information Policy Committee, who dismissed its anti-censorship billing by framing Tor as a tool for criminals.

Last year Russia began blocking Tor nodes and, the tool’s official homepage. The equally predictable response from the authorities was to categorize tools that provide access to blocked resources as banned themselves, and also subject to blocking. The inevitable response from citizens was to circumvent these blocks with VPNs and tools such as Tor. Whether that’s the “extremist organization” behind Facebook and Instagram, BBC News, Google News, or thousands of streaming and torrent sites, access is routinely denied. Russia’s measures include a massive domain name and IP address blocklist governing what services can be legally delivered by ISPs. After years of government censorship to suppress dissent and maintain authorized narratives, unfiltered internet access in Russia is seen as a threat.

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