As Kremlin Cuts Internet, VPNs Become a Way of Life – The Moscow Times

When Russian authorities banned the popular gaming platform Roblox last year for what they said “justifies terrorism and LGBTQ issues,” young people quickly found a solution.

“Everyone at school has a VPN,” one teenager told The Moscow Times, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Not just for the ambassadors, but for the game.”

Virtual private networks (VPNs) have become a daily necessity for millions of Russians as the government has banned foreign social media platforms, messaging apps and independent media.

Authorities have stepped up efforts to block VPNs as their popularity grows – but the number of users continues to grow.

A Moscow resident said he had to turn on his VPN and comment.

He said: “You better ask how this affects my nerves.”

Common usage

Russians using the internet today have to use ever-increasing restrictions, with the total number of websites now blacklisted. wait to 4.7 million.

Major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X have been blocked since the country invaded Ukraine in 2022.

This, combined with increasing restrictions on known messengers Telegram and WhatsApp, have pushed many Russians to use VPN regularly.

One man in Moscow said he started keeping his VPN on all the time since Telegram stopped working in February, turning it off only to use government-controlled apps, which often don’t work with VPNs.

Previously he used VPNs occasionally, when he wanted to access closed media platforms or OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

A 29-year-old social media entrepreneur from the Far East Republic of Sakha told The Moscow Times that her work requires her to use VPNs to access Instagram and other banned platforms such as YouTube.

He usually downloads a new VPN service every six months whenever his current one is blocked, he said.

It is difficult to know exactly how many people use VPN in Russia. App download numbers are not a reliable way to estimate user numbers, as many people download as many VPNs as backups.

The state communications regulator Roskomnadzor does not have this data either, said Alexei Kozlyuk of the VPN Guild. If it could track all VPN connections, it could effectively block them, he said.

Some estimates move Russia ranks second in the world in VPN usage, with around 37.6% of internet users relying on them.

Mikhail Klimarev, the head of the Internet Security Association, said that about 60 million Russians are familiar with VPNs, when the 2025 analysis was carried out by the Public Business Center. found that 46% of respondents have used one at least once.

The war is escalating

Using a VPN in Russia is illegal. But authorities still have more targeted tools that allow users to bypass internet restrictions.

“If you live with an open VPN, you can get into the corners of the Internet that should be avoided,” said lawmaker Sergei Boyarsky, head of the State Duma Policy Committee. warned Russians.

Head of the Safe Internet League Yekaterina Mizulina, the poster child of internet censorship in Russia, called VPN services “place of hell.”

In mid-January, Roskomnadzor had restricted access to more than 400 VPNs. There is also a Russian App Store removed several VPN applications at the request of Roskomnadzor this month.

Technically, authorities can block VPNs by logging server addresses or seeing the protocols they use, Klimarev said.

However, Russia restricts VPN use in many other ways.

Russian law restrictions to advertise VPN services, with fees up to 150,000 rubles ($1,846) for individuals and 500,000 rubles ($6,153) for companies.

As of Wednesday, officials it’s done Adding balances to Apple ID with mobile phone accounts – one of the most popular ways to pay at the Apple Store since international payment services such as Visa and MasterCard stopped operating in Russia in 2022.

Moscow residents have confirmed to The Moscow Times that they are unable to transfer money from their mobile phone bills to their Apple ID accounts.

Klimarev said the move is unlikely to significantly affect VPN usage, noting that many users have already moved away from Apple payments due to high fees.

“It’s also important to note that this only affects Apple, Android payments still work,” Klimarev said.

Separately, mobile users can start charging 150 rubles ($1.80) per gigabyte for using more than 15 GB of international data routed through a VPN per month, according to reports Forbes Russia and BBC Russian.

Expert Eldar Murtazin: “The Internet is becoming something that only rich people can afford be told the pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda. “Perhaps, price restrictions will be introduced so that people will give in [VPNs] for financial reasons. This will give everyone access to the Russian internet. ”

The Department of Digital Development has asked major platforms, including banks and markets, to prevent users from accessing services through VPNs or risk losing their sites to the government. “white list” of important sites available during the blackout, Kommersant report.

At the same time, the use of VPN is treated as an aggravating factor in criminal cases, which Kozlyuk said “creates a state of uncertainty and fear in the law enforcement.

Russian officials have repeated said A complete VPN ban is not on the table, but proposed to allow FSB-license Unrestricted VPNs.

However, since developers are constantly creating new services to help Russians bypass internet censorship, experts say the government does not have the power to completely eliminate VPN use.

Pro-Kremlin media has published comments from experts who believe it is “technically impossible” for the government to defeat VPN.

At the same time, Western sanctions regarding the war in Ukraine such as Visa and Mastercard bans make it difficult to find a VPN, experts told The Moscow Times. This in turn reduces the ability of Russians to obtain independent information.

“Difficulties in paying for services outside of Russia as well as the refusal of commercial companies to work with Russian users significantly reduce the number of people who can pay for VPN services in other countries,” said an anonymous expert at Teplitsa of Social Technologies, a project that facilitates cooperation between private organizations and the IT sector.

He said: “Access to VPNs is restricted inside Russia and abroad.

Shutdown of the Internet

One way to block VPNs without spending the time and resources needed to block individual services is to limit access to the internet itself – which is exactly what the authorities have been doing for the past year.

Authorities in 83 areas have set up a network close up at least once since May 2025, often citing security concerns such as drone attacks in Ukraine. Border regions such as Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov have been blocked for more than 70% of days.

During this shutdown, access is limited to a “whitelist” of approved services, presentation most VPNs don’t work.

While some VPNs may still use “obfuscated” IP addresses, authorities are still able to monitor and block these workarounds, said expert Teplitsa of Social Technologies.

However, experts believe that a complete shutdown of the Internet in Russia, with limited access only to government-approved sites, is highly unlikely at the moment.

“It’s practically impossible to completely block VPNs without introducing global whitelists,” Klimarev said.

He said, a complete cut will come at a high cost.

“If Russia were to completely block access to the global network, VPNs would stop working – but, of course, everything would stop working. [the authorities] selling oil, managing their shadow fleet or buying drone parts? Klimarev said.

“It would mean total isolation from the global network,” he said.