December provided further evidence that the Russian authorities’ prime targets in their quest to censor allegedly illegal websites are not those containing content harmful to children, as they have claimed, but those publicising “extremist” political views and offering online gambling. In the meantime, a new trend has emerged in Russia. Institutions providing public access to the internet — schools, libraries, internet clubs and even post offices — being targeted for law enforcement agency inspections to check whether their computers had been updated to prevent access to banned websites. Quite remarkably, the inspections in schools and educational institutes checked access not only to content harmful to children and students, but also to sites deemed extremist. Regional prosecutor’s offices have in several [...]

It became apparent in November that internet filtering introduced in Russia under the pretext of protecting children is actually for a different reason. Six videos of feminist punk group Pussy Riot were banned by the Moscow court in November, and now Google is required to remove the clips from YouTube. At the same time, regional authorities were busy demanding that local Internet Service Providers(ISPs) to block access to online casinos, gaming sites and sites advertising fake diplomas — obviously the result of November’s new development. As in October, many websites were deemed to be extremist, and local ISPs were requested to block access to them. Libraries were criticised for having computers with unrestricted access to banned websites, and it was [...]

In July the Russian parliament approved a bill designed to increase the Kremlin’s control of the internet. The new laws grant the government sweeping powers to block access to internet resources. Russian Wikipedia blacked out to protest the law claiming that it would “lead to the creation of a Russian analogue to China’s great firewall”. Campaigners fear the new rules will lead to widespread censorship. Even though the law doesn’t come into effect until November, Russian internet service providers are already coming under pressure to block internet resources and services. Here, Andrei Soldatov tells us what Russia censored in September Click here to find out what Russia censored in October