Simon Migliano, who compiled the Top10VPN shutdown report, told me “Iran’s current nationwide blackout is a blunt instrument intended to crush dissent, starkly different from the sophisticated, slow-burn digital censorship we’re seeing in Russia.”

The report follows an agreement reached in December 2025 by EU countries to ban Russian gas imports beginning Jan. 1, 2028, with LNG imports set to be prohibited at the start of 2027.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, the presumed successor to captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, is in Russia, according to a report.

The report said that a Russian rocket sent the satellites to circle the Earth on a 500-kilometer (310-mile) orbit from the Vostochny launchpad in eastern Russia. The three satellites are dubbed Paya, Kowsar and Zafar-2.

Russia has asked the U.S. to stop its pursuit of an oil tanker that was heading to Venezuela and is now fleeing the U.S.

A news report in Bloomberg claiming that ‘three vessels laden with Russian oil are heading for Reliance Industries Limited’s Jamnagar refinery’ is blatantly untrue,” Reliance Industries said in a statement.