Report: Major Russian platforms begin restricting services for users with VPN enabled
Major Russian platforms have begun restricting their services for users with VPN enabled, the Russian Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti (Caution, News) reports.
Some of the channel’s readers say Yandex, VK, online marketplaces, and banking apps stop working properly when a VPN is active.
Other users report that attempting to open certain sections of Mail.ru’s news feed produces a banner telling them to disable their VPN for the page to load.
The Russian news outlet RusNews, citing user complaints, also reports that major services are failing to function normally under VPN. Video in particular fails to load on VK’s platforms.
A Meduza editor attempting to watch a video on VK received a notification reading: “Better without VPN. Videos will load faster.” The editor encountered no difficulty watching the video through a VPN.
In late March, the Digital Development Ministry demanded that major platforms restrict the use of their services over VPN, threatening to remove any that refused from approved “white lists.”
The Russian newspaper Izvestia reported as early as April 7 that Russian online marketplaces had begun restricting access for users with VPN enabled.
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