Russia has spent a decade trying to stop people from bypassing internet censorship. Now it plans to spend nearly 60 billion rubles over three years on traffic filtering.

Russia is preparing a new wave of restrictions on tools used to bypass internet blocks. The budget for the next three years includes a record 60 billion rubles for traffic filtering. The Digital Development Ministry wants to make mobile internet much more expensive for VPN users, and there are plans to put companies’ corporate networks under strict oversight by the Federal Security Service (FSB). Dozens of other restrictions have accumulated in recent years. We looked back at the main ones to show how the state has methodically cut Russians off from the free internet — and where we are on that timeline right now.

VPN services were banned from bypassing Russian internet blocks (2017)

On November 1, 2017, a new Article 15⁸ was added to the law “On Information, Information Technologies, and Information Protection” to address VPNs and other ways to bypass internet blocks:

The authorities did not ban VPNs outright. Instead, they required providers to filter their Russian users’ traffic and block access to resources on the banned list. If providers failed to comply, Russian telecommunications operators were required to block their VPN services on instructions from Roskomnadzor, Russia’s internet regulator. The only exemptions were for the authorities themselves and companies that needed unrestricted access “for technical purposes necessary to support their operations.”

Internet providers were banned from explaining how to bypass blocks (2018)

In February 2016, the Association for the Protection of Copyright on the Internet proposed administrative fines for promoting VPN use to access banned websites. Roskomnadzor supported the idea but proposed fining only internet providers. An agency spokesperson said in April that inspections had uncovered “several instances in which telecommunications operators posted information about ways to bypass blocks on their block notification pages.”

In the end, no separate fine was introduced. But starting November 1, 2017, telecommunications operators were required to comply with rules governing “posted information about restrictions on access to online resources.” Roskomnadzor published the corresponding order in March 2018. It prohibited the following on block notification pages:

• News content
• Information about ways to access online resources containing information to which access is restricted under Federal Law No. 149-FZ

A center was created to manage Russia’s internet, along with equipment to filter traffic and block access (2019)

After their failed attempt to block Telegram in 2018, the authorities learned from their mistakes and passed a law on the “sovereign internet.” It took effect on November 1, 2019.

Among other things, the law allowed centralized control over the Russian segment of the internet. To that end, the authorities established a Center for Monitoring and Management of the Public Communications Network within the Main Radio Frequency Center, which reports to Roskomnadzor. The new center was supposed to be able to take control “in the event of threats to the stability, security, and integrity” of internet operations in Russia.

To counter such threats, every telecommunications operator was required to install TSPU, or “technical means of countering threats.” These hardware and software systems allowed Roskomnadzor to filter traffic at its discretion and block sites and services it deemed objectionable. The agency later made extensive use of TSPU to target VPNs and other tools for bypassing blocks. If you want to understand exactly how TSPU works, watch this five-hour video.

In October 2023, Roskomnadzor head Andrey Lipov said that all communications nodes in Russia were “100% covered by TSPU.”

Mass blocking of VPN services began (2021)

In May 2021, Lipov threatened to block VPN services that continued to ignore Russian legal requirements. The agency began targeting individual providers the following month. Roskomnadzor made its plans public in advance so the blocks would not affect companies using those VPN services “to keep technical processes running at businesses and organizations.”

By the end of the year, the agency had said it was restricting VyprVPN, Opera VPN, Hola! VPN, ExpressVPN, KeepSolid VPN Unlimited, Nord VPN, Speedify VPN, IPVanish VPN, Betternet, Lantern, X-VPN, Cloudflare WARP, Tachyon VPN, and PrivateTunnel.

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All instructions for bypassing Russian internet blocks were banned (2023)

On July 31, 2023, a new provision allowed authorities to add online resources to the unified register of banned websites for another reason:

Fines were introduced for VPN service operators (2025)

On September 1, 2025, a new Article 13.52 was added to the Code of Administrative Offenses:

It provides for fines for refusing to cooperate with Roskomnadzor or to block Russian residents’ access to banned resources. The fines can reach 80,000 rubles for individuals and 500,000 rubles for companies. Repeat violations carry steeper penalties: up to 200,000 rubles and 1 million rubles, respectively.

Using a VPN became an aggravating factor in criminal offenses (2025)

On September 1, 2025, a new item was added to the Criminal Code’s list of aggravating factors:

Now, if a court finds that an offender used a VPN to commit any crime, it can impose a harsher punishment. It can even deny offenders certain forms of leniency under the Criminal Code, such as sentencing limits for those who voluntarily report their crimes to the authorities or enter into a pretrial cooperation agreement.

VPN advertising was banned, and fines were introduced for it (2025)

On September 1, 2026, a new provision was added to Article 5 of the law “On Advertising,” which sets out general requirements:

At the same time, fines for such advertising were added to the Code of Administrative Offenses (Part 18 of Article 14.3). The maximum fine is 80,000 rubles for individuals and 500,000 rubles for companies.

Major Russian companies began detecting users with active VPNs (2026)

In April 2026, the Digital Development Ministry forced major Russian companies with the most heavily visited websites and services to detect active VPNs on users’ devices. The companies were required to block those users’ access and, according to RBC, share data about their VPN connections with Roskomnadzor. In theory, this was meant to help the agency gather information about VPNs that successfully bypass blocks or go entirely undetected, so it could block them more effectively.

Authorities tried to cut VPN services off from Russian hosting providers (2026)

On June 26, 2026, the law “On Information, Information Technologies, and Information Protection” was amended to prohibit Russian hosting providers from serving VPN services that bypass Russian internet blocks:

Okay, folks, this brings us to the present day…

Roskomnadzor would monitor corporate VPNs that bypass blocks

Since 2017, the authorities have officially allowed companies to use VPNs that can bypass Russian censorship “for technical purposes necessary to support their operations.” Companies must also determine in advance which employees will use such a VPN.

A new bill to combat phone and cyber fraud would require companies to notify Roskomnadzor that they use corporate VPNs, though it is unclear how. The government and the FSB would also jointly approve rules for using these services and set requirements for employees who have access to them.

Using Russian hosting providers would become even harder for VPN services

The same bill would create a new Roskomnadzor register of individuals and companies that use servers in Russia to host VPN services. If caught bypassing blocks, they would be barred from entering into contracts with any provider in Russia for a full year. The government would develop procedures for Roskomnadzor and hosting providers to exchange this information.

Charges for international mobile internet traffic would be introduced to combat VPNs

According to Forbes, the Digital Development Ministry’s plans to charge mobile subscribers for international internet traffic first became known in March 2026. At the time, the ministry proposed an additional charge for subscribers who used more than 15 gigabytes of international traffic. This would put VPN users in a bind: When they connect to foreign servers, all their traffic becomes international. Using a good VPN on a mobile phone without additional workarounds would become very expensive.

At the time, telecommunications operators asked for the measure to be postponed. But officials have now returned to the idea. According to Kommersant, the government is proposing to raise the free international internet traffic allowance to 50 gigabytes and, for now, introduce the additional charge only on 5G networks.

The authorities plan to allocate even more money to combat VPNs

The draft federal budget for 2027–2029 provides for a sharp increase in spending on traffic filtering and internet blocks using TSPU. The annual subsidy to the Main Radio Frequency Center had been set at 9,870,441,200 rubles for 2027 and 9,844,821,700 rubles for 2028. The new draft budget simply puts a 1 in front of each figure. The planned subsidy for 2029 is roughly the same: 19,870,474,200 rubles. That amounts to nearly 60 billion rubles over three years. By comparison, in 2024, the authorities planned to spend almost the same amount, 59 billion rubles, on upgrading TSPU — but over six years (through 2030).