On January 11, the American non-profit organization The Tor Project filed an appeal against the blocking of the Tor anonymous browser in the Saratov Regional Court. Authorized representatives of the service expressed their belief that the blocking of Tor was erroneous, arguing that there is no prohibition in Russian law on disseminating information about VPN technologies and anonymizers. This was reported by Kommersant, citing information from court documents. The interests of the browser developers are represented by lawyers from Roskomsvoboda.
The hearing regarding the blocking was conducted without representatives from Tor, which constitutes a violation of the rights of the resource owner. The decision to block the website obstructs the constitutional right to freely provide, receive, and consider information, as well as to protect the confidentiality of private life, according to the lawyers from Roskomsvoboda.
The restriction on access to Tor resources came into effect on December 8, 2021, following a decision by the Saratov District Court made back in 2017.
The unblocking of Tor is possible, provided that access to websites banned in Russia is restricted. However, the chances are minimal since services that bypass blocks are included in the list of threats to information security, concluded Yaroslav Shitsle, head of the Dispute Resolution at Rustam Kumarov and Partners.
In January 2022, the blockchain project TON announced that it would launch an analog of the Tor service by the end of the year.