IN BRIEF | Russia will ban VPN apps from November 1st, joining China in a crackdown of software and cloud-based systems used to access websites with meet with the state's disapproval.

Russian internet regulator Roskomnadzor is said to have a blacklist of thousands of web sites.

A second bill signed by President Vladimir Putin will require that chat and messaging apps identify users through their phone number as of January 1, 2018.

The moves are seen as ways to enforce government censorship ahead of the March 2018 presidential elections, blocking websites containing anti-Putin information as well as discouraging the use of online chat and messaging software to organise anti-Government protests and pro-reform rallies.