Russia’s Crackdown on Tor

A Russian court has recently ordered Russian internet service providers to block RUBlacklist, a website that posts useful tips on how to use anonymity services, like: VPNs and Tor, and shares information on how to use torrent websites, like: The Pirate Bay.

“Law enforcement has demonstrated its complete incompetence in the basic knowledge of all the common technical aspects of the Internet, though even youngsters can understand it,” Artyom Kozlyuk said. “Anonymizers, proxies and browsers are multitask instruments, helping to search for information on the Internet. If we follow the reasoning of the prosecutor and court, then the following [things] should be prohibited as well: knives, as they can become a tool for murder; hammers, as they can become a tool of torture; planes, because if they fall, they can lead to many deaths.”

Last year, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) offered a 3.9 million Russian ruble (approx.US$110,000) prize for cracking the Tor anonymity network.

‘It’s not important if the Russian government is able to block Tor or not. The importance is that they’re sending signals that they are watching this. People will start to be more cautious.’ security expert Andrei Soldatov explained.

It isn’t clear whether Tor is illegal in Russia or not, but it is definitely frowned upon by the Russian bear despite the fact that is widely used all over Russia together with other anonymity services, like VPNs. As a result, Russian internet users and bloggers are seeking to find ways to hide Tor connections in order to safely and privately browse the web without violating any laws or getting caught by the government.

In this article, we explain how you can effectively hide Tor connections in Russia and escape the claws of the Russian bear.

How to Hide Tor Connections in Russia?

You can still evade the Russian government’s online surveillance and hide your Tor connections without being detected by ISPs in Russia. Here is how:

Use Tor over OpenVPN

One of the most effective ways to hide Tor connections is by wrapping it through an additional strong layer of encryption. You can tunnel Tor through an OpenVPN connection or vice versa, for example. An OpenVPN is an open basis software application (not native to any platform) that undertakes VPN performance and in which providers can do what they want with it; build their own VPN clients or use any sort of encryption methods they want etc. to create a highly secured connection from one site to another or from one point to another. Further, an OpenVPN can be configured to run a wide range of encryption algorithms. Therefore, tunnelling Tor over OpenVPN will make it impossible for any third party to detect your Tor connection, hence, makes it easy for your to hide Tor from any ISP in Russia and anywhere else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUyo5V_Uhuo&ab_channel=WASELVPN-HowTo(VPNTips)

Use Tor over SSH Tunnel

Another great way to hide Tor in Russia is by tunnelling it through an SSH connection. Similarly to using Tor over OpenVPN, tunnelling Tor through SSH wraps your Tor connection within an extra encryption padding. A secure shell (SSH) protocol consists of an encrypted tunnel created through a SSH protocol connection. An SSH tunnel can be used to transfer unencrypted traffic over a network through an encrypted channel. Accordingly, hiding Tor by wrapping it with an SSH protocol will maintain your anonymity online and make Tor undetected by any internet service provider in Russia or in any other country.

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