I can find no followup at all to that news story -- almost every article about it was published within a few days of each other, and no news in the last year.

I can find no followup at all to that news story -- almost every article about it was published within a few days of each other, and no news in the last year. Pakistan blocked youtube more recently, and I can see several folk suggesting that using the https site as a workaround for that block. That loophole was closed later, but it seems unlikely to me they actually went ahead with the blanket block on encryption. e: There seem to be two points of origin for this story. First, in July, this tweet by "privacy international". https://twitter.com/privacyint/status/96852484936564736 https://twitter.com/privacyint/status/96852484936564736 There's not really any source given there. Then, in late August, the following story that cites an unnamed source in an ISP. http://tribune.com.pk/story/240736/virtual-watchdog-internet-users-banned-from-browsing-privately-for-security-reasons/ http://tribune.com.pk/story/240736/virtual-watchdog-internet... The stories are at least consistent, but Pakistan never made an open declaration of their intent to block https or VPNs, and probably abandoned it as unworkable. I'd assume that it'll play out much the same in Russia.