Russia's communications regulator says it has blocked IP addresses owned by Google and Amazon because Moscow claims the internet addresses are used by the Telegram messaging service that was banned by Putin's regime this week.
From Reuters:
Russia’s Roskomnadzor watchdog began blocking Telegram, a messaging service popular in Russia, on Monday after it refused to comply with a court order to grant state security services access to its users’ encrypted messages.
Roskomnadzor’s head Alexander Zharov said it had blocked 18 sub-networks and a significant number of IP-addresses belonging to Google and Amazon, the Interfax news agency reported.
“We have currently informed both companies that a significant number of IP addresses located in the clouds of these two services have fallen under the block on the basis of the court ruling (to block Telegram),” Zharov was quoted as saying.
Blocking the IP addresses has prevented Russian internet users from accessing Telegram and other services that route content through Google and Amazon servers.
Some users have circumvented the block by using virtual private networks, which make it seem as though they were accessing the internet from another country.
Zharov told Interfax that Roskomnadzor hoped it would receive “legally meaningful” responses from Amazon and Google by Wednesday.
