It’s a nice technical question on how to run a VPN but the ultimate goal is not the best technical solution but the ability to avoid detection by the state. And that’s not a technical problem but an opsec one
If someone is participating in online discussions (discord and twitter) to spread local news - then it’s hard to know who is who, and who to trust - and that’s kind of the why Arab spring did not spring “hey wear a red carnation and meet me by the corner” can become a death sentence
The answer to opsec is avoid all digital comms - but at this point you are seriously into “regieme change”, or just as Eastern Europe did, keep your heads down for forty years and hope those who leave you economically behind will half bankrupt them selves bringing you back.
I think in the end, a thriving middle class with a sufficient amount of land reform, wealth taxes which can over a generation push for liberalisation sounds a good idea.
Our job in the very lucky liberal West is to keep what our forefathers won, and then push it further to show why our values are worth the sacrifice in copying