Russia has hardened its restrictions on the use of VPNs to access a host of online services, state and independent media outlets reported yesterday, as the authorities seek to exert more control over online communications.

Virtual private networks (VPNs) allow users to mask the websites they visit, enhancing security by making it more difficult for telecoms networks or security services to access data.

They have boomed in popularity in Russia in recent years as a way to circumvent state censorship and as Moscow bans hosts of critical news sites, Western services, social media platforms and messengers.

The TASS state news agency reported yesterday that banks, video streaming sites, online retailers and search engines were blocking access where they detected the user had an active VPN connection.

AFP journalists in Moscow were shown error messages that read “it seems you are using a VPN” and “access denied, turn off VPN connection if you are using one” when trying to access online retailers Ozon and Wildberries.