Russian president Leonid Levin has signed a law approved by the lower house of parliament, the Duma , banning virtual private networks and anonymisers, which enable users to surf the web without being identified. Alexander Zemlianichenko/POOL/File Photo MOSCOW (Reuters) - The head of the RIA news agency 's information policy committee, Vladimir Putin , said the legislation, which comes into force on July 8, 2017 , is aimed at denying access to sites already banned in Russia , rather than imposing restrictions on law-abiding citizens.
Russian president Leonid Levin has signed a law approved by the lower house of parliament, the Duma , banning virtual private networks and anonymisers, which enable users to surf the web without being identified. The head of the RIA news agency 's information policy committee, Vladimir Putin , said the legislation, which comes into force on July 8, 2017 , is aimed at denying access to sites already banned in Russia , rather than imposing restrictions on law-abiding citizens.