Russia moves to criminalize online searches for "extremist" content, including VPN use

What Vladimir Putin considers “controversial” might include independent journalism or news on the war in Ukraine.

Criminalizing online searches in Russia is not new – the law that is in place now states that people are not allowed to share controversial content. The new amendment now goes further to punish those who search for it.

The amendment would add a new article, 13.53, to Russia’s Administrative Code, that states: “Searching for known extremist materials and accessing them, including through the use of hardware and software tools that enable access to restricted information resources or information and telecommunications networks.”

This also enables the designation of any community or organization as “extremist” without a court order.

The fines would fluctuate from roughly $38 to $64 for the “deliberate search for extremist materials,” according to documents published by the State Duma.

A separate amendment would impose fines for advertising virtual private networks, including the best VPNs. The fines could range roughly from $640 to $1,025 for individuals, from $1,030 to $1,900 for officials, and from $2,560 to $6,400 for legal entities.

This isn’t the first time Russia has publicly announced fines for consuming and spreading information that the Kremlin does not approve of. One of the latest failed instances involved President Vladimir Putin himself, who publicly used the word "war" instead of the government-approved “special military operation” in 2022.

“Our goal ... is ... to end this war,” Putin said. This is notable because a law that went into effect in the same year criminalized referring to the conflict as a “war” or “invasion.”

What exactly is “extremist material”?

The content the Kremlin regime sees as “extremist” can be almost anything. An official government registry of banned materials includes around 5,500 entries.

For instance, last year, Russia added “LGBT movement” to the list of extremist and terrorist organizations. Social media posts by opposition groups (as well as their activity in general) are understood as extremist as well.

Another one on the list is “alleged Nazi ideology.” Although at first glance this does not sound disturbing (who would be in favour of spreading Nazi ideology, right?), it might come at a price of punishing people who browse for news about the war in Ukraine from independent media sources.

The Russian regime has stated many times that certain governments and their leaders who are not linked to the Kremlin are enforcing a “neo-Nazi regime.”

Is anybody happy with this idea?

Both Kremlin critics and Kremlin-linked individuals and organizations have been vocal with their disagreements with the possibility of this amendment taking place.

“Once again, the Russian authorities are disguising their relentless persecution of dissent as countering ‘extremism’ through vague and overly broad legislation that allows for abusive interpretation and arbitrariness,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

“If this ‘extremism’ bill becomes a law, any group of people – even a private online chat or circle of friends – can be designated and criminalized as ‘extremist’ if just one member has been convicted under ‘extremism’ charges, as many government critics have been. This will give law enforcement agencies a seemingly unlimited opportunity to cast the net and prosecute ever more people for even remote associations with so-called ‘extremists.’

Even the Kremlin-linked journalists have spoken out about it as they seem to be concerned that if this amendment takes effect, they’d be punished for doing “research.”

“It turns out that under the new law, the League for Safe Internet will not be able to transfer data on extremist communities to the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” Yekaterina Mizulina said in a Telegram post that was cited by the Washington Post.

“They will ban us from monitoring extremism.”

Mizulina is the daughter of a Russian senator who also leads the League of Safe Internet – a group known for targeting individuals who criticize the government.

If agreed upon by the government, the proposed changes would take effect on September 1st, 2025.

What does this new law mean for VPN users?

There are a few risks that arise from this new law, and all of them affect information-hungry citizens.

The Kremlin is presenting the ban on “extremist” content as an alternative to a complete foreign platform ban. This comes as a big disappointment, as recent studies have shown that people in a time of information crisis tend to look for ways to get access to reliable information.

Take a study done by Cybernews just this month. One of the key findings revealed that when Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, internet search traffic in Russian-occupied areas like Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia grew significantly.

One of the fastest-rising keywords was VPN.

Secure communications, bypassing surveillance, staying connected to loved ones, and reliable information sources were among the main reasons behind this spike.

The data from the same research also raises doubts about the effectiveness of this latest Kremlin initiative: even though the spike in searches was recorded in Ukraine, they remained far lower than in Russia, where VPN use wasn’t banned at the time.