Russia’s ban-happy telecom watchdog has vowed to spend up to RUB20b (US$295m) building a better system to keep Russians from accessing forbidden online content.

In October, Alexander Zharov, boss of Russia’s telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor, let it slip that the agency was preparing “a completely new system of filtering and blocking [illegal] content.” On Tuesday, the BBC Russian Service reported that this new system involves ‘deep packet inspection’ (DPI) to examine the content of digital messages en route to their intended recipients.

Roskomnadzor’s current filtering toolbox relies on an ineffective domain-blocking system that routinely targets thousands of international gambling sites serving Russian punters without local permission (including another 3,300 gambling domains in the week ending December 14). Last week also saw Roskomnadzor fine Google for failing to block forbidden sites from appearing in Russian search results.

Testing of the new DPI system began in August and reportedly ramped up in recent months, including trials in several major cities. Several local companies are reportedly competing for the right to operate the new system, and the trials are being overseen by Roskomnadzor, the FSB security agency and the Ministry of Digital Development.