Russia is strengthening its internet controls in a crucial year for Putin

Russia is stepping up its internet censorship ahead of elections this weekend that will almost certainly give President Vladimir V. Putin another six years in power, further shrinking one of the last remaining spaces for political activism, independent information and freedom of expression is reduced.

Russian authorities have intensified a crackdown on digital tools used to circumvent internet blocks, restricting access to WhatsApp and other communications apps in specific areas during protests, and expanding a program to shut down websites and online services, according to civil society groups, researchers and companies that have been affected.

Russia, they said, is turning to techniques that go beyond established practices of hacking and digital surveillance, taking a more systemic approach to change the way the domestic internet functions. In doing so, the country uses methods developed by China and Iran, providing an authoritarian model for regulating the internet that contrasts with the more open approach of the United States.

Russia “has reached a new level of lockdown in the past six months,” said Mikhail Klimarev, a Russian telecommunications expert and executive director of the Internet Protection Society, a civil society group.

Internet censorship has been increasing in Russia for more than a decade, but the scale and effectiveness of the latest blockages have surprised even tech experts. The techniques contribute to an infrastructure of repression built by Mr. Putin to control protesters and opponents and feed the country a diet of state propaganda.

The moves come at a critical time for Putin, who is dealing with memorials to Alexei A. Navalny, the Kremlin’s fiercest critic, after he died in a Russian prison last month and the fallout from an ongoing war in Ukraine. . On Friday, Russians will also go to the polls to vote in the presidential election that Putin will almost certainly win. The tightened internet controls show that the government does not intend to take any risks.

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s top internet regulator, did not respond to a request for comment.

In stepping up its internet crackdown, Russia has taken cues from China, where the internet is heavily restricted and social media is closely monitored.

In 2016, Fang Binxing, the father of China’s Great Firewall, the system used to censor the country’s internet, met with Russian counterparts. The relationship has developed since then, according to leaked documents from meeting notes reviewed by The New York Times. The documents show how internet officials from the two countries met in 2017 and 2019 to share information on fighting encryption, blocking foreign sites and curtailing protests.

The lessons from the discussions have now been put into practice in Russia.

In January, as protests rocked the industrial province of Bashkortostan, officials successfully restricted local access to the messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram. Similar shutdowns have recently taken place in the Dagestan and Yakutia regions, said Mr. Klimarev, who monitors online censorship in Russia and operates a company called VPN Generator.

After Mr Navalny died last month, other restrictions followed. During Mr. Navalny’s funeral in Moscow, mobile networks in nearby areas were reduced to slower speeds, making it harder to post videos and images to social media, Mr. Klimarev said.

In recent weeks, Russian tech companies and online activists have also reported new government efforts to identify internet traffic patterns coming from virtual private networks, or VPNs, software designed to bypass blocks.

Roskomnadzor identifies VPNs large and small and shuts down the connections, closing many of the last loopholes that allowed Russians to access global news sites or ban social media sites like Instagram. The approach, considered more advanced than previous tactics and requiring specialized technologies, mimics what China does around sensitive political moments.

Some VPNs remain available in Russia, but are becoming increasingly difficult to find. A law that came into effect on March 1 banned advertising for such services.

“If we look back to the beginning of 2022, finding a VPN was not that difficult,” said Stanislav Shakirov, the technical director of Roskomsvoboda, a civil society group that supports an open internet, adding that the change shows how quickly Russia’s capabilities have become. improved.

Russia is also changing the way it censors websites and internet services. After relying primarily on telecom operators to block sites on a published blacklist, authorities now appear to be relying more on centralized technology to more discreetly block and slow traffic from Moscow, researchers said.

Officials appear to be weighing a desire for internet control against technical limitations and a fear of angering the public by restricting popular online platforms, such as YouTube and Telegram, used for news, entertainment and communications. The government has also faced technical challenges, including when many major websites went offline for about 90 minutes earlier this year, which experts attributed to a failed test of a new blocking system.

Authorities were most likely preparing for events that could disrupt this weekend’s elections, experts say. Navalny’s supporters have called on people to go to the polls on Sunday afternoon to vote against Putin, hoping that images of long lines will show the world the extent of the discontent. The government could undermine the plan if it can prevent the images from spreading.

The techniques build on a Chinese-influenced playbook that is becoming more sophisticated every year. During high-level meetings between China and Russia in 2017, Russian officials sought advice on methods to block websites, limit access to the global internet and build a government-controlled internet similar to the Great Firewall, according to reports and notes of the meetings. made available online by DDoSecrets, a group that publishes leaked documents.

Discussions also focused on how to combat the increase in encrypted data flows, how to target larger mainstream messaging apps, and what to do about services like VPNs that can bypass blocks. During the exchanges, China highlighted the use of real name registration – a system that requires the use of a government ID card to register for mobile services and social media – as a way to control people.

China and Russia must “establish the necessary connections to jointly counter current threats in the cyber environment,” Alexander Zharov, head of Roskomnadzor, told visiting Chinese officials in 2017, according to a leaked copy of the speech.

In recent months, Russia’s blocking of VPNs has gone further than ever before.

“The level of blocking we see in Russia far exceeds what we see in China,” said Yegor Sak, founder of Windscribe, a Canadian provider of a VPN used in Russia to bypass internet blocks.

With WhatsApp and Telegram, Russia has taken a different approach than China. After largely leaving the services alone for years, authorities have recently taken steps to restrict access to the apps at key moments of political instability. In Bashkortostan, a manufacturing and mineral center with a large indigenous population, authorities temporarily cut off access to Telegram and WhatsApp in January in response to protests that began after the arrest of a local environmental activist.

Meta, which owns WhatsApp, declined to comment. Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.

The outages became such a problem that people left messages on the social media pages of local politicians asking for the services to be turned back on because they needed them for everyday life, according to posts on VK, the main social media site in Russia.

“I can’t reach the school and talk to the doctor and my relatives,” said one user. “Give us back WhatsApp and Telegram,” wrote another.

The blocks were “very important” because the messaging apps, used by millions of people, were considered much harder to disrupt, said Ksenia Ermoshina, an expert on Russian censorship and surveillance technology. Telecom companies were most likely cooperating on government orders, she said.

The experiment suggests growing capabilities that can be used in future moments of crisis, potentially limiting the rise of political movements.

“People protest when they see other people protesting,” Ms. Ermoshina said. But with the ability to lock down entire regions, the Russian government can “better control regionalist and separatist movements” and prevent demonstrations or other anger from spreading.

Openings for unregulated internet traffic are slowly being closed. At telecommunications points where transnational internet cables enter Russia, companies are being required by the government to install new surveillance equipment, analysts said.

“The Soviet Union is returning,” said Mazay Banzaev, the operator of a Russian VPN called Amnezia. “This brings back complete censorship.”

Anatoly Kurmanayev reporting contributed.