iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The Riposte @theriposte.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Russia blamed internet shutdowns during the Duma elections on drone defense. Drone attacks hit 5 regions. Shutdowns hit all 83. We checked 506 alerts against actual drone activity. The overlap: 2 out of 38. So what were they actually blocking? riposte.levelflow.org/2026/09/dron...

riposte.levelflow.org

Drones and Allowlists are not Connected - The Riposte

Is there any connection between drones and “allowlists”? We proved there was none.

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The Riposte @theriposte.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Russia's State Duma elections run Sept 18-20. 33 regions formally can vote online, but whether it works depends where you connect from. We tested seven connections in Russia and Europe. Your own IP is no guarantee, a foreign one sometimes works better.

riposte.levelflow.org

Russia is Hiding Election-Related Websites from Foreigners and VPN Users - The Riposte

We tried to access the official websites from Europe via VPN.... and were not impressed.

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The Riposte @theriposte.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Russia's new domain rules quietly created something stranger than blocking. Buried in the decrees almost no one covered: a domain name once used for a blocked site can never be registered by anyone again. Not the old owner, not a stranger, not in ten years. riposte.levelflow.org/2026/09/rururu/

riposte.levelflow.org

More Censorship: How Russia Changed the Rules for Its National Domains - The Riposte

On September 1, two government decrees took effect that rewrote how Russia registers domains in the .ru, .рф, and .su zones.

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The Riposte @theriposte.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A DNS censorship mechanism went viral in Russian tech circles in late August. We tested it from three vantage points. What we found wasn't what anyone described, and it depends entirely on whether you're on home broadband or a data center connection. riposte.levelflow.org/2026/08/russiandns/

riposte.levelflow.org

What is Happening with DNS in Russia - The Riposte

We found some anomalies

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The Riposte @theriposte.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Wikipedia went down in Russia on Aug 28. We checked it three ways: traffic data, @ooni.org's network measurements, a reader poll. They all converge. But there's no block page, no official comment, and no one has said why. riposte.levelflow.org/2026/08/wikipedia/

riposte.levelflow.org

Wikipedia Went Down in Russia. Was It Censorship? - The Riposte

The drop happened, it was measurable, and we this is what we discovered.

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The Riposte @theriposte.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

You don't need a VPN to get around Russia's censorship. Free tools got Instagram and WhatsApp working in our tests, exploiting a weak spot in how filtering equipment scans traffic. The one holdout: Telegram stayed blocked no matter what we tried. riposte.levelflow.org/2026/08/bypasswithoutavpn/

riposte.levelflow.org

Bypassing Blocks Without a VPN - The Riposte

We tried the most popular ways, and succeeded!

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The Riposte @theriposte.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

We suspected Russia was quietly rerouting DNS answers to censor Telegram and Signal. So we tested 12 DNS providers from inside and outside the country. What we found is stranger than simple blocking: a genuine, working Cloudflare address. riposte.levelflow.org/2026/08/russiandns/

riposte.levelflow.org

What is Happening with DNS in Russia - The Riposte

We found some anomalies

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The Riposte @theriposte.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Criteria for Russia's "national AI" status just excluded 90% of Russian AI firms. Open-source-based models don't qualify. The bar: legal ownership of the code. The prize: access to state data and gov contracts. + models get checked for "traditional values" 🙄 riposte.levelflow.org/2026/07/russianai/

riposte.levelflow.org

Russia Will Regulate AI Using "Traditional Values". How? - The Riposte

What is behind the scenes of the new law passed by State Duma with exceptional speed?

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The Riposte @theriposte.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

That padlock on your bank's site "this connection is safe" just changed meaning in Russia. Banks switched to a state certificate authority, so users install its root cert to fix it. The same state runs the network too, so it can now read your traffic. riposte.levelflow.org/2026/06/state-ssl/

riposte.levelflow.org

Russian Authorities Promote Their Own SSL Certificates. Here's Why It's Dangerous - The Riposte

Since mid-June 2026, Russian authorities have sharply stepped up their push for domestic security certificates. The Ministry of Digital Development (“Mintsifry”) announced that website owners can obta...

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The Riposte @theriposte.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

30.5%. That's the share of mobile sessions in Central Russia that ran unrestricted in July. Everyone else reached only Russia's "allowlist": ~500 approved services, including banks, Gosuslugi (gov portal), VK. This is the new normal, not an emergency step. riposte.levelflow.org/2026/08/allo...

riposte.levelflow.org

How the Allowlist Works When Mobile Internet Is Cut Off - The Riposte

How does the "register of socially significant services" work in Russia? It's a list of resources that continue to operate when mobile internet is shut down.

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