Russian government agencies are spending heavily on Virtual Private Network (VPN) services to circumvent internet censorship imposed by the Russian government since the beginning of the occupation of Ukraine. In other words, the Russian government relies on VPNs to circumvent its own ban.
Top10VPN recently took a close look at Russia’s official public procurement database administered by the Federal Treasury. Ironically, the team using a VPN to access the data was unable to access it from the UK.
The site determined that Russian government firms have signed 236 contracts for VPN technology since the start of the invasion on February 24, totaling 807 million rubles (approximately $9.8 million).
Also, Moscow-based government agencies and companies regulated by the public procurement law spent 196 million rubles (about $2.4 million), more than any other region. Krasnoyarsk was the second largest spending region with $1.8 million.
After splitting data by industry, the researchers found that legislatures ($2.3 million) spent the most, followed by IT and communications institutions ($1.9 million) and health and emergency services ($1.5 million). ) detected.
The war in Ukraine is being waged on two separate fronts, one physical and the other digital. In the cyber world, there is a media/propaganda war going on, along with constant DDOS attacks, ransomware, leaks and other forms of attack.
The Russian government has blocked more than 1,500 websites to keep its citizens away from western media and prevent them from approaching events from a Western perspective. Many citizens in the country have turned to VPN services to bypass obstacles and access non-Russian websites, causing the demand for VPN apps to increase by 2.692% compared to pre-war levels.
Russia seems to be in a constant effort to block VPN traffic in the country. However, it is not yet clear whether he aims to take this effort to the end, especially knowing that government employees also use VPNs…
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