- At least 10 VPN services reported severe network restrictions, IP blocking
- This new wave of blocking follows Russia's recent parliamentary elections
- About 57 million Russians are estimated to rely on circumvention tools
Russian authorities have launched a renewed and aggressive assault on virtual private networks following the country's recent State Duma elections. Within the span of a single week, at least ten VPN providers reported significantly tighter network restrictions, leaving users scrambling to maintain access to the open web.
According to reports cited by the independent outlet Meduza, multiple providers have faced severe service disruptions. One service noted its team had to swap out eight servers in just five days, while two others saw all of their international server locations and IP addresses outright blocked by the state communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor.
Despite the abrupt spike in outages, industry experts suggest the clampdown was anticipated. Alexey Kozlyuk, chairman of the VPN Guild, noted that while the restrictions are severe, the organization doesn't consider the election-timed blocks a "fundamentally new wave."
"From what we've seen, the pressure began to mount back in early August. We see what's happening now as a continuation and gradual intensification of that campaign," Kozlyuk said to Meduza.
TechRadar has reached out to Amnezia VPN and digital rights experts at RKS Global for further comment on the current outages.
A spokeswoman for Amnezia VPN also told TechRadar that these new blocks aren't surprising. "In Russia, VPNs face pressure almost every month; it is a new norm," they said.
This latest wave of blocking hasn't affected Amnezia, though. "Following the events in June, we rebuilt our server infrastructure and updated our protocol to be more resilient against censorship," the company told TechRadar.
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A coordinated assault on internet freedom
The post-election throttling is just the latest phase in a long-running technical war against privacy tools. A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) details how the state has pivoted from granular, targeted blocks to sweeping infrastructure attacks designed to break the fundamental architecture of circumvention software.
"The Russian government's escalating attacks on censorship circumvention services is part of its broader assault on access to information, privacy, and freedom of expression," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Tactics include the bulk blocking of entire IP subnets, targeted phishing campaigns against provider employees, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
In June, a coordinated assault crippled the popular provider Amnezia VPN, taking the company six weeks to fully restore its network. Following that devastating state-sponsored cyberattack, Amnezia VPN restored premium service in Russia and subsequently improved its anti-censorship protocols as Russia escalated its anti-VPN regime.
The state also appears to be increasingly weaponizing domestic tech. Earlier this year, authorities directed major Russian internet companies to quietly log their users' VPN connections. A study by RKS Global confirmed that at least 30 domestic apps gathered these IP addresses, which were then fed back into the state's censorship apparatus to help execute the largest block of over 20 popular VPNs in history.
The stakes for digital privacy are incredibly high. The Kremlin's war on the global web turned VPNs into Russia's new national utility, with an estimated 57 million people, roughly 40% of the country's population, now using them to reach independent news and blocked platforms like Instagram and YouTube.
As Russia's battle against VPNs is entering a new phase, authorities are simultaneously pressuring Apple and Google to remove circumvention tools directly from their respective app stores.
HRW reports that Apple removed 1,213 applications in response to Russian government requests in 2025, while Google faced a 22.8 million ruble fine in February 2026 for failing to scrub VPNs from its Play Store. Several popular clients were removed from Apple's platform in March after Roskomnadzor claimed the apps “included content that is illegal in Russia.”
With the government cutting off mobile payment gateways and aggressively squeezing tech giants, users face a growing technical arms race to detect, block, and evade Russia's VPN crackdown.
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