Russia has launched a major crackdown on the use of VPNs as part of a wider move to establish control of the Internet in the country.

Over the last few years, virtual private networks (VPNs) have become an everyday necessity for millions of Russians, helping them to access websites banned by the government – from foreign social media platforms and messaging apps to independent media outlets.

Currently, Russians are facing major restrictions online: the total number of blacklisted websites has reached nearly 5mn. Major global platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X, have been blocked since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Similarly, there are major restrictions on popular messaging apps, such as Telegram and WhatsApp. For many users, the solution is to use one of the many available VPN services - both free and paid.

Technically, the use of a VPN in Russia is not illegal. However, over the last few years, the authorities have been taking action against VPN apps.

Russia's media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, regularly blocks VPNs, and the number of blocked VPN services has exceeded 400. The agency has also been able to get several VPN apps removed from the Russian App Store.

Last year, Russia passed a law imposing fines for using VPNs "to search for extremist content." The fine amounts to RUB3,000–5,000 ($38-$62). However, this applies only to the deliberate search for materials included by the ministry of justice in the federal list of extremist materials, and the law hasn't been widely applied.

A fine has also been introduced for advertising VPN services. The fine is up to RUB80,000 ($996) for individuals, up to RUB150,000 ($1,867) for officials and up to RUB500,000 ($6,223) for legal entities.

A new attack on VPNs

Now, Russian authorities have launched a new attack on VPNs in a bid to tighten control of the internet in the country.

As of April, the authorities blocked topping up Apple ID balances using mobile phone accounts - one of the most popular payment methods in the Apple Store since international payment services, like Visa and MasterCard, suspended operations in Russia back in 2022. That limited users’ options for paying for VPN apps.

In late March, Maksut Shadayev, Russia's minister for digital development, held meetings with representatives of the tech industry. One of the meetings was attended by representatives of major telecoms operators, while another featured execs from major digital platforms, such as Yandex, VK, Avito, Ozon and Wildberries, Forbes Russia reported.

Shadaev reportedly asked mobile operators to introduce a charge for using more than 15 GB of international internet traffic per month as of May 2026. The rationale is that international traffic is largely accounted for by VPN services.

The idea of introducing administrative liability for the use of VPNs was was also floated, but Shadaev allegedly said he hoped that wouldn't be necessary, Forbes Russia reported.

Pressure on big players

In early April, the ministry of digital development sent Russian IT companies a guidance document on combating the use of VPN services, the business daily RBC reported.

According to RBC, the list of recipients includes Sberbank, Yandex, VK, Wildberries, Ozon, Avito, X5 and others.

The tech news website CNews reported that the local tech giants were told to begin restricting Russians' access to their internet services via VPN as of mid-April 2026. Those who fail to do so were threatened with the revocation of their IT accreditation, which would immediately result in the loss of benefits for both the companies themselves, such as lower tax rates, and their employees, currently entitled to lower-rate mortgages, deferral from military service and other privileges.

According to RBC, the digital development ministry also intends to oblige the owners of the most popular websites not only to block access to their services for users with VPNs enabled, but also to "help identify VPN services that Roskomnadzor has not previously identified or restricted."

Experts say, however, that this approach could run into problems. Alexey Raevsky, CEO of Zecurion and a cybersecurity expert, was quoted by RBC as saying that it could lead to mistaken blocking of access to websites for legitimate users and the slowing down of services. Furthermore, creating a VPN detection system would require substantial resources, including a team to develop and maintain the software, as well as additional computing power to store information in a database and analyse it. According to Raevsky, this could cost companies tens of millions of rubles a month.

The initiative to restrict VPNs in Russia is also likely to hit companies' remote employees, which use corporate VPNs. According to data collected by the Higher School of Economics, in 2025, around 1mn employees of Russian companies worked remotely. In 2026, around 35% of Russian companies planned to practise remote working, according to data from the SuperJob recruitment website. Companies using remote employees normally rely on VPN services for security and efficiency.

Restrictions on VPN services could potentially harm companies' IT infrastructure. On April 4, Natalya Kaspersky, co-founder of Kaspersky Lab and president of the InfoWatch group, said on Telegram that attempts to block VPNs could lead to paralysing the operation of a large number of services, as the overlay network uses protocols that frequently overlap with critical infrastructure.

She also explained a massive disruption in the operations of several Russian banks on April 3 by Roskomnadzor's activities, but later retracted her message.

Meanwhile, other experts and legislators warned that the digital development ministry's initiative would do little to solve the problem of bypassing blocks, but would instead hit the economy, provoking a digital counter-revolution.

State Duma Deputy Speaker Vladislav Davankov staid that a paid VPN would inevitably create digital inequality in the country: the internet would become a privilege, with the wealthy continuing to use Western digital services, gaining competitive advantages in education, work and business, whilst the rest would end up on the "internet for the poor."

The move to restrict VPNs comes amidst Russian authorities' other measures aimed at establishing full control of what information can be available to the country's residents online.

In addition to blocking or restricting operations of such global platforms as YouTube and Facebook, the Russian authorities have been recently cracking down on foreign messaging services, such as WhatsApp and Telegram.

On WhatsApp, owned by Facebook's parent company Meta, voice and video calls have been blocked since 2025, while text messages are often delayed and photos and files are sent intermittently.

Since mid-March, the Russian authorities have been restricting Telegram, with reports saying that a final decision to completely block the service in April has been made. As a pretext, the authorities cited the rise in the number of cases involving the recruitment of citizens, including minors, to carry out illegal activities. But Telegram has repeatedly stated that it is actively combating the malicious use of the platform, including calls for sabotage.

Since mid-March, users in many Russian regions have experienced mobile internet shutdowns, which authorities explained by security concerns like Ukrainian drone attacks. Border regions like Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov have seen disruptions on more than 70% of days. During these outages, access is typically limited to a "white list" of approved online services.

This combination of a new crackdown on VPN usage, mobile internet shutdowns and the full blockage of Telegram is likely to come as a major step toward establishing substantial government control over the internet in Russia.