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vk.com is the most used social media site in Russia. According to its Wikipedia page it is majority-owned by Sogaz, a Russian energy company.

When I tried to connect to it from the US, it connected me to 87.240.190.67, an IP address whose ASN record

hostname: "srv67-190-240-87.vk.com" city: "Saint Petersburg" region: "St.-Petersburg" country: "RU" loc: "59.9386,30.3141" org: "AS47541 VKontakte Ltd" postal: "190000" timezone: "Europe/Moscow" asn: Object asn: "AS47541" name: "VKontakte Ltd" domain: "vk.com"

shows that it was connecting me to a server inside the Russian Federation. Assuming all of VK's servers are in RF, does that mean that all Russian censorship, and criminal, laws apply to all VK social media accounts?

For example, if I were to make an RF account and start making posts about the genocide committed by the Russian Federation's troops in Ukraine, should I expect an RF's prosecutor to try to extradite me to stand trial for violating RF's new censorship laws?

Just so we are clear, while the vk.com's server IP I posted is real, I am not actually planning to do this. So I am not looking for an answer like "get a VPN." I am trying to understand how RF's government censors work and how much they monitor or care to monitor.

And while my question is hypothetical, I am looking for a non-hypothetical answer. Can someone point to an example of how vk.com content resulted in someone getting in trouble? But it has to be trouble just for vk.com content, not vk.com content+some other actions.

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    Lack of extradition treaties goes both ways. Recall that Russia doesn't extradite its citizens; it's in their constitution, IIRC. And even if that were not the case, unless you live in a (very) Russia-friendly country, courts in your country would probably not extradite you to be judged based on laws that would probably be unconstitutional in their own jurisdiction.
    – 264 champagne bottles on ice
    Commented Apr 4, 2022 at 22:19
  • @Fizz there is no extradition, but Putin once claimed that the US can report cyber crimes committed by RF citizens, against the US, to RF authorities. Supposedly there is a mutual cooperation on providing evidence to the domicile country by the victim country. Could RF then try to report me for unauthorized access to electronic equipment in RF (because my use of the equipment would be against RF law)? Unauthorized access to electronic equipment is a crime in the US.
    – wrod
    Commented Apr 4, 2022 at 22:23
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    Probably no. They'd have to convince prosecutors in your own country to take the case. Unauthorized access doesn't generally just mean you violated TOS after getting an account, especially when said violation would contravene 1st amendment. (Otherwise they'd be a gzillion prosecutions for people braking youtube TOS and what not.) It seems like a Q mostly for Law SE, anyway.
    – 264 champagne bottles on ice
    Commented Apr 4, 2022 at 22:25
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    I wonder if you have better plan than "- Look, your soldiers have killed civilians" "- Our press say that these were either staged or killed by far-right batallions" "- They LIE to you!"
    – alamar
    Commented Apr 4, 2022 at 22:27
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    I don't remember a single case where Russia would try to extradite somebody over news coverage. Now, with Belarus it's a very different story.
    – alamar
    Commented Apr 4, 2022 at 22:47

2 Answers 2

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Can someone point to an example of how vk.com content resulted in someone getting in trouble?

According to 66.ru, vk.com is the most popular place for officials to find their victims. The blue bars on the image below show the number of criminal cases started from posts or reposts on vk.com: image Source: https://66.ru/news/internet/222602/

And this link contains some specific cases (in Russian language). The list is not a comprehensive or detailed one, it's just the first link that I got from Google. Interestingly, the last person mentioned there had received a year in colony in 2015 for showing support of Ukrainian nazis.

enter image description here

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  • And was this "nazi support" content removed from the site? Rbc.ru is not connecting for me. Like I said, I am in the US. Can you, please, add a screenshot (even if it is in Russian) to the answer?
    – wrod
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 6:29
  • @wrod the article does not mention that but I suppose so. What was the point otherwise? Here is a short notice of this event from another source, which is unavailable (without VPN) for me, so it might be available for you: svoboda.org/a/27400384.html and here is the requested screenshot: i.imgur.com/dhxBkq3.png
    – anemyte
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 7:16
  • I couldn't possibly answer the "what was the point otherwise" question. I have no idea how the system of accusations and counteraccusations is related to the elements of political power in Russia. I hope you it's ok if I add this screenshot to your answer at the end... If you would rather I didn't, please, let me know and I'll roll it back (if you you don't have enough rep to rollback yourself).
    – wrod
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 7:49
  • @wrod It's ok, I don't mind.
    – anemyte
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 7:55
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They probably are not going after you at all, unless you turn out a media phenomenon, in which case you probably done enough impact to offset the risk involved.

In case where you do not admit fighting in an information war and hence not accepting any level of risk: don't do that. Even as they will not go after you, working with such content may interfere with your mental stability and/or health. Myself, I avoid looking at such materials coming from either side.

Also, get a VPN.

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