The proposal was included in one version of a draft national plan for the adoption of AI technologies through 2030, Kommersant reported. The document set a target of 95% effectiveness in blocking VPN services, with AI expected to help block up to 70% of such services.
The Digital Ministry told Kommersant that the current version of the draft national plan does not contain such provisions.
A source familiar with the discussions told the outlet that intelligent traffic analysis algorithms are already in use, though they are not AI.
"AI tools make it possible to find VPN servers relatively quickly by indirect signs: how a node behaves, what hosting it sits on, what neighboring addresses look like. And most importantly, this makes it possible to respond faster to changes in network activity," a market source told Kommersant.
At the same time, the outlet's sources warned that the use of AI, especially in the early stages of training, would likely lead to the blocking of "legitimate traffic." According to a source, model errors on large volumes of traffic could result in a large amount of legitimate traffic being blocked.
Sergei Kudryashov, a partner at Strategy Partners, noted that corporate VPNs, cloud access and voice traffic are statistically similar to circumvention traffic, and that the cost of an error for business is higher than letting a home VPN through.
Demand for VPNs in Russia has grown against the backdrop of blocks on social networks, services and messengers. The authorities have stepped up their fight against circumvention of restrictions: 60 billion rubles have been allocated in the budget for the next three years for traffic filtering. Digital Ministry head Maksut Shadaev has said the ministry was tasked with reducing VPN use in the country.
Telecom operators have been instructed not to expand data transmission channels to Europe, and large companies to close access to their resources for those connecting via VPN. According to Forbes, Vladimir Putin demanded restrictions on VPN operations in Russia in a "closed instruction." After the State Duma elections, the authorities launched a new wave of blocking that affected at least ten popular VPNs.