He relaunched it in 2014 as a nationwide community platform with a significant online presence and a group of activities called “Open Media.” Mixing in politics, Khodorkovsky vowed to use the platform to move Russia away from a powerful president and more towards power in the legislature and judiciary branches.

The site and the movement may be outlawed in Russia, but it still exists and is viewable outside of Russia’s jurisdiction. Khodorkovsky now lives in exile in Switzerland.

A brief history of Russian Censorship

In 2017, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed legislation making VPNs illegal. The law went into effect in November 2017. However, the ban was enforced, suggesting that Russia has neither the technology nor the manpower to enforce the ban, which has gone completely unchecked in the months since.

Best VPNs for Accessing Open Russia

If you live inside Russia or have traveled there and have a passion for Open Russia, you should invest in a VPN that has very strong security features to avoid trouble with the Russian government.

1Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN

Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN has its headquarters in the US, making it a great VPN for USA websites but it also has pretty nice security features all things considered. Despite its US base, it has a strict no-logs policy and features a kill switch while giving each user five devices per license. Private Internet Access only has 25 countries in its network, but reaches 3,000 servers which is an ample amount to find reliable connections outside of Russia that aren’t subject to similar censorship. Get it Now

2Trust.Zone VPN

It has a no-logs policy and supports OpenVPN encryptions. There are servers in more than 30 countries and its unlimited bandwidth package comes standard.  Its free trial is only limited to a three-day period, but it gives you to 1GB of data for those 72 hours, a pretty generous offer of space. Trust.Zone is very fairly priced and gets reviews across the board for its tidy, easy-to-use interface that makes it a winner among novice VPN users, particularly those who have read about the plight of Open Russia for the first time and are curious to see for themselves what it is all about. Get it Now