Alison Sargent is pleased to welcome Hugh WILLIAMSON. As Human Rights Watch Director for Europe and Central Asia, he views Russia’s recent restrictions on VPNs not as isolated technical measures, but as part of a broader and intensifying architecture of censorship that has expanded significantly since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He argues that these policies reflect a deliberate effort by the Kremlin to curtail access to independent information, suppress public debate, and consolidate political control. While framed by authorities as necessary for security or public safety, such measures are neither proportionate nor transparent, and they violate fundamental human rights, particularly the right to freedom of expression and access to information. He highlights the unintended consequences of this strategy: growing public frustration, economic disruption, and even political risk for the government itself. What emerges is not a static system of control, but a dynamic “cat and mouse” struggle between state censorship and societal efforts to preserve access to information.
