Russia was never really an open country when it comes to Internet freedoms. When the war with Ukraine started, the situation went from bad to worse — prompting many users to turn to VPNs in order to keep their access to websites and services they got accustomed to. We’re talking about sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and so on.
But guess what? Regular folks are not the only ones who wanted unrestricted access to the world wide web, with Russian officials joining this wave, as well.
According to Top10VPN findings, Russia’s Federal Treasury has published 236 official contracts for VPN technology totaling almost $10 million — including contracts from Russian government agencies as well as private companies. And with $8 million spent, the government agencies accounted for the majority of the figure.
One contract, worth $1.8 million, is for “the provision of power services for the provision of data transfer channels and access points to the Internet” for the Russian Interior Ministry department for the Krasnoyarsk territory.
So it is not just the regular folks who want to keep their access to Facebook, Twitter and global media websites — government agencies also want to be in the loop on what’s really going on in the world. And in Ukraine, for that matter.
On that note, in April, a Kremlin spokesperson admitted he uses a VPN, saying: “Why not, it’s not banned.”
Makes sense when you think about it, though it would be even better if he would help lift the website blockade in the first place. Guess that’s wishful thinking at this moment.