Kremlin’s war on VPNs continues as regulator aims to block 92% of VPN services by 2030
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communication regulator, intends to block nearly all VPN servers operating within the country by 2030.
The Kremlin has been waging a war against providers of so-called virtual private network (VPN) services.
Over the past few years, Roskomnadzor has ordered tech companies like Apple to remove VPN apps from their app stores. The number of VPNs that have become unavailable in Russia is estimated to be in the hundreds, including popular VPN providers like ExpressVPN and CyberGhost.
In most cases, VPN apps are removed from app stores silently. Thanks to organizations like GreatFire, a nonprofit interest group that strives for freedom of online information and helps people circumvent government-imposed censorship, we know that such practices are considered normal in countries with an oppressive regime.
Human rights activists such as Benjamin Ismail, Director of the App Censorship Project at GreatFire, are calling the removal of VPN apps a “direct threat to digital freedom and privacy.”
Although countless VPN apps are no longer available to the public in Russia, this doesn’t mean that Moscow’s work is done. On the contrary, Roskomnadzor has set an ambitious goal to block 92% of VPNs in Russia by 2030.
This isn’t some idea on the drawing board either: the plan has already been funded. In 2026, 20 billion rubles will be allocated from the federal budget to block VPNs and establish RuNet, Russia’s ‘sovereign internet.’ The same amount has been reserved for 2027 and 2028 as well.
The story was uncovered by Maria Kolomychenko, an independent journalist in Russia. She stumbled upon a document on the website of Roskomnadzor, detailing the Kremlin’s plans to obstruct VPN usage within Russia.
However, the Russian government hasn’t defined what “92% VPN blocking efficiency” exactly means. According to Kolomychenko, it could refer to the number of VPN applications removed from stores, the volume of traffic blocked, or the percentage of people unable to connect.
In February 2026, Google was fined 22.8 million rubles, or approximately $300,000, by Moscow’s Tagansky District Court for promoting VPN services via Google Play.
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