Maybe it is pedantry, but people writing for the general public should explain things well. Why didn’t they just write:
As a result, anyone wanting to access blocked sites from Russia is forced to use a VPN that encrypts internet traffic and makes it appear to come from outside Russia.
This way you’re not lying and saying a VPN “changes your IP address” which is both not accurate nor easily digestible for the general public. That part specifically is what gets me.
