This is a weird post and I honestly did not know where to post it so its going here for now.

I’m writing a paper where I have to compared Putin and Xi Jingping on multiple factors, one of them being how does each president respond to regional threats. I was able to get access to the Chinese Ministry of Defence website very easily, just clicked on the link and I’m golden. When I did the same for the Russian Ministry of Defence I was give a screen saying access was denied, or when using a different app the servers don’t respond at all. When I briefly looked it up the answers I am getting are Kyiv did some sort of hack which may have made the Ministry respond with denying access to non-Russian citizens, or Russia made the Ministry of Defence website inaccessible to unfriendly nations in general.

I was told using the government’s official websites (the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) was a “scholarly” source so I figured using their defence ministry’s information could be good to use when talking about how they deal with threatening behaviour. I will most likely have to talk about specific situations being dealt with but I thought the Ministry would be the best place to start.

Is anyone else facing this problem? Is there anyway I can get around it? I know I should be using a VPN but I’m hesitant to commit to one right now (I’m not that tech savvy).

  • knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    6 months ago

    The sites work for me. Lots of western countries and ISPs block non-aligned government content, you can get around it with a VPN or often just a different DNS server. Switching your DNS server just takes a minute and doesn’t cost anything, worth a try.

    • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      6 months ago

      Well I caved and got a VPN (Mullvad) and yeah, that worked. I don’t know how to mess with my DNS server so VPN it is. Either the Canadian government is blocking the site or the Russian government is, either way I can access the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs without a VPN so it’s weird how its just the one website…

      • knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        6 months ago

        I’ve noticed a bunch of DNS level blocks on websites coming from EU and German censorship. Mostly Russian and Iranian websites, RT and PressTV come to mind. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Canadian government has agreements with the telecom cartel to block sites for people in Canada.

        • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          13
          ·
          6 months ago

          I was gonna say the same thing. The EU most definitely blocks a bunch of Russian sites so it’s not inconceivable for Canada to do the same.

    • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      6 months ago

      Honestly, for a firewall it isn’t very consistent. I can still access the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and RT with no problems.

  • GaryLeChat@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    6 months ago

    This access denied is on the Russian side. It seems as though almost all Canadian IP addresses are blocked.

    • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      6 months ago

      I can’t believe the Russian government won’t make an exception for little ol’ me. Oh well, the VPN is helping me get access, maybe one day Canadian IPs won’t be blocked.

        • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.mlOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          6 months ago

          “Xi Jingping if you can hear us, please. Xi Jingping, please save me. Please save me Xi Jingping. Please. I’m asking you, please save me. Please save me, please get these people away from me!”

          IYKYK

      • GaryLeChat@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        6 months ago

        Considering the access denied page was in Russian and said to request access, contact this email ending in a .Ru address, I would say that’s blocking on the Russian side. If the DNS didn’t resolve then I would say the blocking is on the Canadian side. This case may be different for other countries.