It's no secret that Russia has been cracking down harder on its citizens' use of the internet lately. We've reported on this trend quite a bit over the past few months – in mid-May, the country signed a law that requires ISPs to be able to disconnect from the outside internet on command and route all traffic through Russian servers.
Further back, in March, Russian regulators ordered global VPN providers to play by their rules by connecting to a government-mandated blacklist. Though Kaspersky seems to have complied – no surprise, given the fact that it's a Russian company and thus subject to the country's laws – other VPN providers have actively fought against the orders.
Now, Russia has given up on the carrot and gone straight for the stick. Following the refusal of said VPNs to comply with censorship rules, Russian officials say they will be forced to block them in "some time," which could occur as soon as this month.
Though this is certainly unfortunate news for privacy-minded Russian citizens, the VPNs their government intends to block (which include the likes of NordVPN, Hide My Ass, and others) are certainly not the only options available in the country; they are merely some of the most popular ones.
As such, it probably won't be too difficult for any affected individuals to migrate to another, unblocked service for their anti-censorship needs.