This is disturbing, but this is how the buck stops, isn't it? All of these cryptographic dataflow concealer technologies have one very unpleasant failure mode:

This is disturbing, but this is how the buck stops, isn't it? All of these cryptographic dataflow concealer technologies have one very unpleasant failure mode: somewhere they have to interface with the physical overworld, where they're subject to all the unpleasantness of both their home jurisdiction (in this case, Russia), and in some cases, the jurisdictions of those who are intent on their laws applying worldwide (such as governments like the United States -- who are absent from this particular case, but not others). No amount of condemnation on part of the EFF and declarations that "running an exit node is not a crime" is going to help Bogatov, where the Russian government has decided it will do what it takes to prove a point. This is how chilling effects work: when it endangers your own freedom and livelihood, you are forced to suddenly re-evaluate your priorities between big abstract issues like freedom of speech and whistleblower protection, vs. holding your head down and hoping you don't get caught up in something much bigger than yourself. It also proves that these anonymizing networks only function in a free society, and break down in the exact situations where they would be most needed.