Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
How millions of Russians are tearing holes in the Digital
Iron Curtain
Anthony Faiola - The Washington Post
Fri, May 6, 2022, 2:35 AM
RIGA, Latvia - When Russian authorities blocked hundreds of Internet
sites in March, Konstantin decided to act. The 52-year-old company manager in
Moscow tore a hole in the Digital Iron Curtain, which had been erected to
control the narrative of the Ukraine war, with a tool that lets him surf
blocked sites and eyeball taboo news.
Konstantin turned to a virtual private network, an encrypted digital tunnel more commonly known as a VPN. Since the war began in February, VPNs have been downloaded in Russia by the hundreds of thousands a day - a massive surge in demand that represents a direct challenge to President Vladimir Putin's attempt to seal Russians off from the wider world. By protecting the locations and identities of users, VPNs are now granting millions of Russians access to blocked material.
Downloading one in his Moscow apartment, Konstantin said, brought back memories of the 1980s in the Soviet Union - when he used a shortwave radio to hear forbidden news of dissident arrests on U.S.-funded Radio Liberty.
"We didn't know what was going on around us, and that's true again now," said Konstantin, who, like other Russian VPN users, spoke on the condition that his last name be withheld for fear of government retribution. "Many people in Russia simply watch TV and eat whatever the government is feeding them. I wanted to find out what was really happening."
Daily downloads in Russia of the 10 most popular VPNs jumped from below 15,000 just before the war to as many as 475,000 in March. As of this week, downloads were continuing at a rate of nearly 300,000 a day, according to data compiled for the Washington Post by the analytics firm Apptopia, which relies on information from apps, publicly available data and an algorithm to come up with estimates.
Russian clients typically download multiple VPNs, but the data suggests millions of new users per month. In early April, Russian telecom operator Yota reported that the number of VPN users was 53.5 times as high as in January, according to the Tass state news service.
The Internet Protection Society, a digital rights group associated with jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, launched its own VPN service on March 20 - and reached its limit of 300,000 users within 10 days, according to executive director Mikhail Klimarev. Based on internal surveys, Klimarev estimates that the number of VPN users in Russia has risen to roughly 30% of the country's 100 million Internet users.
To combat Putin, "Ukraine needs Javelin [missiles] and Russians need Internet," Klimarev said.
By accessing banned Ukrainian and Western news sites, Konstantin said, he has come to deeply sympathize with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian the Russian press has sought to falsely portray as a "drug addict." He was recently compared to Adolf Hitler by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"I loved him as an actor, but now I know Zelensky is also brave because I've seen him talk on Ukrainian news sites with my VPN," Konstantin said.
Not only does widespread VPN use help millions reach material laying out the true extent of Russian military losses and countering the official portrayal of the war as a fight against fascists, say Russian Internet experts, but it also limits government surveillance of activists.
Russian officials have sought to curtail VPN use. An anti-VPN law in 2017 resulted in the banning of more than a dozen providers for refusing to comply with Russian censorship rules.
In the days before the war, and in the weeks since then, Russian authorities have also ratcheted up pressure on Google, asking the search engine to remove thousands of URLs associated with VPNs, according to the Lumen database, an archive of legal complaints related to Internet content. Google, which did not respond to a request for comment, still includes banned sites in search results.
The Russian government is reluctant to ban VPNs completely. Policing such a ban would pose a technological challenge. In addition, many Russians use VPNs to access non-political entertainment and communication tools - popular distractions from daily hardships.
Last month, when asked by Belarusian TV if he had downloaded a VPN, even Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov conceded: "Yes, I have. Why not?"
Since the war began on Feb. 24, more than 1,000 Internet sites have been restricted by Russian authorities, including Facebook, Instagram, BBC News, Voice of America and Radio Liberty, according to a survey by the technology site Top10VPN. The last independent Russian media outlets were forced to shut down, and those in exile that are offering critical content - like the popular Meduza - have also been banned.
Today, even calling Putin's "special operation" - as he has forcibly dubbed the invasion - a "war" risks a sentence of up to 15 years in jail. Free speech has effectively disappeared; even teachers who question the invasion are being reported to the authorities by their students.
"People want to see banned content, but I think they're also genuinely scared," said Tonia Samsonova, a London-based Russian media entrepreneur. "No matter your attitude toward the government or the war, every Russian knows that if the government knows too much about you, it's potentially dangerous. So a VPN is so useful even if they aren't critical of Putin."
Katerina Abramova, spokeswoman for Meduza, said online traffic at the site declined only briefly after it was banned by Russian authorities in March. That's because, suddenly, traffic began surging from unlikely countries like the Netherlands - suggesting that Russians were utilizing VPNs that made them appear to be abroad.
"VPNs won't start a broad revolution in Russia," Abramova said. "But it's a way people who are against this war can stay connected to the world."
As the war progressed, however, Natalia found herself also looking at banned news sites, including Radio Free Europe, to stay informed, even as friends around her bought "totally" into the government line that Ukrainians were Nazis and Russia was facing an existential threat from the West.
"People now just believe lie after lie. I feel so isolated," she said.
She said, for example, that she's been able to read foreign news stories suggesting there were significant Russian casualties in the sinking last month of the Moskva, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. But the Russian press has reported only one official death, with 27 soldiers declared "missing."
Although downloading a VPN is technically easy, usually requiring only a few clicks, purchasing a paid VPN has become complicated in Russia, as Western sanctions have rendered Russian credit and debit cards nearly useless outside the country. That has forced many to resort to free VPNs, which can have spotty service and can sell information about users.
Vytautas Kaziukonis, chief executive of Surfshark - a Lithuania-based VPN that saw a 20-fold increase in Russian users in March - said some of those customers are now paying in cryptocurrencies or through people they know in third countries.
In a country used to hardships, Russians are good at creative workarounds. Elena, a 50-year-old Moscow tour operator, said she has managed to tap into her old Facebook account by repeatedly signing up for free trials with a series of different VPN providers to avoid payment.
"We do what we have to do," Elena said.
Translation
拉脫維亞-里加 - 當俄羅斯當局在三月份封鎖了數百個互聯網站時，Konstantin 決定行動起來。這位
52 歲的莫斯科公司經理在電子鐵幕上撕開了一個洞，該鐵幕是為了控制烏克蘭戰爭的敘述而豎立起來的，他使用的工具可以讓他瀏覽被屏蔽的網站和盯著禁忌新聞。
Konstantin 轉向虛擬專用網絡，即通常稱為 VPN 的加密電子隧道。自 2 月戰爭開始以來，俄羅斯的 VPN 下載量每天已達到數十萬 - 需求量激增，這對總統普京試圖將俄羅斯人與更廣闊的世界隔離開來的努力構成直接挑戰。通過保護用戶的位置和身份，VPN 現在允許數百萬俄羅斯人接觸被阻止的材料。
Konstantin說，在他莫斯科的公寓裡進行一個下載，令他想起了 1980 年代在蘇聯的記憶 - 當時他使用短波收音機收聽美國資助的自由電台有關逮捕異議人士的受禁消息。
Konstantin說: “我們不知道我們周圍發生了什麼，現在又再發生了”，他和其他俄羅斯 VPN 用戶一樣，發言的條件是隱去他的姓氏, 因為害怕政府報復。 “俄羅斯的許多人只是看電視，接收政府給他們的任何東西。我想知道到底發生了什麼。”
俄羅斯最受歡迎的 10 個 VPN 的每日下載量從戰前的 15,000 次以下躍升至 3 月的 475,000 次。根據分析公司 Apptopia 為《華盛頓郵報》編制的數據，截至本週，下載量繼續以每天近 300,000 次的速度持續增長，該公司依靠來自應用程序的信息、公開可用的數據和一種特定計算程式來得出估計值。
俄羅斯客戶通常會下載多個 VPN，但數據表明每月有數百萬新用戶。據塔斯社報導，4 月初，俄羅斯電信運營商 Yota 報告稱，VPN 用戶數量是 1 月份的 53.5 倍。
與被監禁的俄羅斯反對派領導人 Alexei Navalny 有關聯的電信權利組織的互聯網保護協會 (Internet Protection Society) 的執行董事Mikhail Klimarev 於 3 月 20 日推出了自己的 VPN 服務，並表示在 10 天內達到了 30 萬用戶的極限。根據內部調查，Klimarev 估計俄羅斯的 VPN 用戶數量已上升到該國 1 億互聯網用戶的大約 30%。
為了對抗普京, Klimarev說: “烏克蘭需要Javelin[導彈]，俄羅斯人需要互聯網”。
Konstantin說，通過訪問被禁的烏克蘭和西方新聞網站，他對烏克蘭總統澤連斯基深表同情，俄羅斯媒體試圖將這位前喜劇演員錯誤地描繪成“吸毒者”。俄羅斯外交部長拉夫羅夫 (Sergei Lavrov) 最近將他與希特勒相提並論。
Konstantin說: “我喜歡他作為演員，但現在我知道澤連斯基也很勇敢，因為我用我的 VPN 看到他在烏克蘭新聞網站上講話” 。
俄羅斯互聯網專家表示，VPN 的廣泛使用不僅幫助數百萬人獲得了材料顯,示俄羅斯軍事損失的真實程度, 反駁對官方將戰爭描述為與法西斯鬥爭，而且還限制了政府對社運人士的監視。
俄羅斯官員試圖限制 VPN 的使用。 2017 年的一項反 VPN 法導致十多家供應商因拒絕遵守俄羅斯審查規則而被禁止。
根據 Lumen 數據庫，一個與互聯網內容相關的法律投訴檔案儲藏室, 指出在戰爭之前的日子裡，以及之後的幾周里, 俄羅斯當局同時加大了對谷歌 Google 的壓力，要求搜索引擎刪除與 VPN 相關的數千個 URL。谷歌沒有回應置評請求，在搜索結果中仍然包含被禁止的網站。
俄羅斯政府不願完全禁止 VPN。監管執行這樣的禁令將帶來技術挑戰。此外，許多俄羅斯人使用 VPN 來接進到非政治性娛樂和通訊工具 - 這是日常辛勞中的常見的消遣。
上個月，甚至普京發言人 Dmitry Peskov 當白俄羅斯電視台問他是否下載了 VPN 時，也承認：“是的，我有。為什麼不呢？”
根據技術網站 Top10VPN 的一項調查，自 2 月 24 日戰爭開始以來，包括 Facebook、Instagram、BBC 新聞、美國之音和自由電台在內的 1000 多個互聯網站點已受到俄羅斯當局的限制。最後一家獨立的俄羅斯媒體機構被迫關閉，那些提供關鍵內容的流亡者 - 例如受歡迎的 Meduza - 也被禁止。
今天，即使声稱普京所 謂“特別行動” - 正如他盡力稱這個入侵行動 - 為“戰爭”，也有可能被判處長達 15 年的監禁。言論自由實際上已經消失了；甚至質疑入侵的教師也被學生舉報給當局。
駐倫敦的俄羅斯媒體企業家 Tonia Samsonova 說: “人們希望看到被禁止的內容，但我認為他們也真的很害怕，” “無論你對政府或戰爭的態度如何，每個俄羅斯人都知道，如果政府對你了解太多，就有潛在的危險。因此，即使他們不批評普京，VPN 也非常有用。”
Meduza 的女發言人 Katerina Abramova 表示，該網站的在線流量在 3 月被俄羅斯當局禁止後僅短暫下降。這是因為，突然之間，來自荷蘭等不太可能的國家的流量開始激增 - 這表明俄羅斯人正在使用令他們看起來像是在國外的 VPN。
Abramova 說: “VPN 不會在俄羅斯引發一場廣泛的革命”; “但這是反對這場戰爭的人們可以與世界保持聯繫的一種方式。”
83 歲的莫斯科人、前計電腦操作員 Natalia 要求她成年的女兒在戰爭開始後不久幫助她在筆記部電腦上下載 VPN。她擔心政府會禁止 YouTube，從而阻止她看到她最喜歡的節目 - 一個關於科技新聞的在線脫口秀節目。克里姆林宮尚未封鎖 YouTube，儘管俄羅斯互聯網專家表示可能性仍然很高。
然而，隨著戰爭的進展，Natalia 發現自己也在看被禁止的新聞網站，包括自由歐洲電台，以保持知情，即使她周圍的朋友“完全”相信政府新聞線路說烏克蘭人是納粹分子，及俄羅斯正面臨來自西方的生存威脅。
她說:“人們現在只相信一個又一個謊言。我感到非常孤立”。
例如，她說，她能夠閱讀外國新聞報導，這些報導表明俄羅斯黑海艦隊的旗艦“莫斯科號”上個月沉沒，造成俄羅斯重大人員傷亡。但俄羅斯媒體只報導了一名官方死亡事件，有 27 名士兵被宣布“失踪”。
“父母們剛剛從國防部得到一個答覆 - 你的兒子‘失踪’，”她說。 “失踪？你的意思不是真的死了嗎？但他們沒有那樣說。他們沒有說實話。”
雖然下載 VPN 在技術上很容易，通常只需要點擊幾下，但在俄羅斯購買付費 VPN 變得很複雜，因為西方的製裁使俄羅斯的信用卡和扣數卡在國外幾乎毫無用處。這迫使許多人求助於免費 VPN，它們的服務參差不齊，並且可以出售有關用戶的信息。
Surfshark 的首席執行官 Vytautas Kaziukonis 是一家立陶宛的 VPN，3 月份俄羅斯用戶增長了 20 倍 - 說其中一些客戶現在使用加密貨幣或通過他們在第三國認識的人付款。
在一個習慣困難的國家，俄羅斯人擅長創造性的變通方法。 50 歲的莫斯科旅遊經營者Elena說，她通過反復與一系列不同的 VPN 提供商註冊免費試用以避免付款，成功地進入了她的舊 Facebook 帳戶。
Elena說: “我們要做必須做的事”。
So, since Putin’s war in Ukraine began
in February, VPNs have been downloaded in Russia by the hundreds of thousands a
day - a massive surge in demand that represents a direct challenge to President
Putin's attempt to seal Russians off from the wider world. Millions of
Russians are tearing holes in the digital iron curtain.
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