Avito and gaming services crash after massive VPN blocking

Users of the largest streaming and gaming services – Twitch, World of Tanks – and the Avito ad placement service have faced access issues after VPN services were blocked in Russia. About it writes Kommersant.

Fault message published developer of the online game World of Warships. To block VPN sites, providers use the equipment necessary to comply with the “Runet Isolation” law. “During the blocking process, many UDP ports were affected, including those used in our game,” the company said.

Over the past week, the FlashScore mobile streaming service (which mainly broadcasts football matches) and the BitTorrent torrent client have also experienced operational problems. Roskomnadzor said that the problems were allegedly not related to blocking: “When implementing measures to block VPN services, the specified UDP ports were not blocked.”

Sources in the Big Four operators reportedthat they tested their own networks and believe that the reason for the difficulties is the work of the TSPU (technical means of countering threats), which was established by Roskomnadzor. VimpelCom stated that the operator’s own equipment is operating normally. At the same time, the company stressed that they do not control the operation of equipment installed by law, which can potentially affect traffic transmission.

Earlier on September 3, Roskomnadzor blocked six VPNs: Hola! VPN, ExpressVPN, KeepSolid VPN Unlimited, Nord VPN, Speedify VPN and IPVanish VPN. Their work was found to be in violation of the law. Prior to this, in June, the Russian authorities also brought blacklisted VyprVPN and Opera VPN. According to the law, since 2017, VPN services are required to connect to the Federal State Information System (FSIS) and restrict users from accessing sites prohibited in Russia.

The law on the so-called “sovereign Runet” acts since 2019. Officially, the document is intended to protect the Russian segment of the Internet from external threats. A number of its provisions, including on the domain name system, began to operate only this year. According to the law, equipment must be installed on the networks of all mobile and Internet operators, through which Roskomnadzor can, if necessary, manage traffic routing.