Yes, this policy changed from Nov 21 and AFAIK, there isn't a workaround (VPN doesn't help) .
Making Ratings and Reviews better for users and developers gives the logic:
We’ve heard from both Play Store users and developers that ratings and reviews could be more helpful. This is especially true when ratings from one area unfairly impact another — like when a bug that only impacted a single country negatively affects the app’s rating everywhere; or when positive improvements in a tablet experience are overlooked because of the number of users on phones. So we’re starting a multi-quarter program of improvements to make ratings more personalized and indicative of the experience each individual user can expect, and to make them easier to navigate and use for developers
(Emphasis supplied)