Internet censorship in Russia in 2026: what is blocked and how people get around it

In this edition, Russia has 12 websites at national scale (0 widespread, 12 partial), including BBC, Facebook and Twitter (twitter.com), and signs of possible blocking on 4 more, including Telegram, X (x.com) and Discord. OONI volunteers run website tests from their own networks. We sort every country and website pair into confirmed blocking, signs of possible blocking, no sign of blocking, or not measured, as on the internet censorship index.

The Russian results rest on 388,083 measurements of 24 websites in September 2026. They differ by network: a block that shows on one network often does not show on the next.

What is blocked in Russia, according to OONI data

Russia has 12 websites at national scale in this edition: 0 widespread and 12 partial. National scale means confirmed blocking on at least 2% of tests, from at least 30 tests, that still holds with the single biggest network left out. A partial result is confirmed blocking on 2% or more of tests, but under 20% once the biggest network is left out. A widespread result is confirmed on at least 20% of tests even without it.

Read the table by status:

• Confirmed block: the ISP serves a block page, or DNS returns an address tied to censorship.
• Sign of possible blocking: OONI flags the result as unusual. It may be a false positive from an unstable network, an unreliable server or a website that serves different content by country. We keep it apart from confirmed blocks.
• No sign of blocking: the test found nothing unusual. "Not measured" is a different result and never means this.

A partial result means the same website can load on one provider and fail on another. A visitor may find that a website that worked at the airport does not work at the hotel.

Blocking in Russia changes from one network to the next

OONI reported in March 2022 that censorship in Russia is decentralized. Each ISP implements government-mandated blocks on its own, so blocks do not show on every network and ISPs use different techniques. That report describes early 2022 and says nothing about today.

The cards below show how much of each website's confirmed blocking rests on one network, and how the rate looks without it.

When one network carries most of the confirmed blocks, the result is partial rather than widespread: the website is blocked on one network and less often elsewhere. That does not make the other networks clean. OONI sees only the networks where volunteers ran tests, and a block shows in its data only if the website was tested on the network that blocks it.

Which apps and services does this affect?

The services people ask about most appear in OONI's data in two ways: confirmed blocking on some networks, or signs of possible blocking that OONI has not confirmed. For September 2026:

• OONI confirmed blocking of Facebook in Russia on 6.7% of 53,676 tests in September 2026. This is partial blocking: on some networks, not across the whole country.
• OONI confirmed blocking of Instagram in Russia on 6.2% of 53,180 tests in September 2026. This is partial blocking: on some networks, not across the whole country.
• OONI confirmed blocking of Twitter (twitter.com) in Russia on 6.3% of 50,501 tests in September 2026. This is partial blocking: on some networks, not across the whole country.
• In September 2026, OONI found no confirmed block of Telegram in Russia at national scale, but signs of possible blocking in 81.8% of 28,148 tests, which OONI has not confirmed.
• In September 2026, OONI found no confirmed block of X (x.com) in Russia at national scale, but signs of possible blocking in 79.2% of 29,586 tests, which OONI has not confirmed.
• In September 2026, OONI found no confirmed block of Discord in Russia at national scale, but signs of possible blocking in 72.2% of 27,737 tests, which OONI has not confirmed.
• In September 2026, OONI found no confirmed block of YouTube in Russia at national scale, but signs of possible blocking in 56.0% of 47,097 tests, which OONI has not confirmed.

A low confirmed rate does not mean a website works. Interfax described Instagram and Facebook as banned in Russia in July 2025, and Human Rights Watch said at the time that reaching them is largely impossible without a VPN. Much of Russia's blocking shows up in OONI's data as anomalies rather than confirmed blocks, because OONI confirms only a block page or a DNS answer tied to censorship, and each Russian ISP applies blocks in its own way. The confirmed rate is a floor and understates the blocking.

Reports from outside OONI fill in what a website test cannot:

• Human Rights Watch reported in March 2026 that Roskomnadzor had confirmed "gradual restrictions" on Telegram from February 2026, and that Russian media reported plans to block it fully in April.
• Its July 2025 report says that since August 2024 authorities have blocked Viber, Signal, Session, Simplex chat and Discord for failing to store and disclose user data. OONI tests each service's website, not its app, so an app can be blocked while its website shows no sign.
• The same report said authorities had been throttling YouTube since July 2024, and the March 2026 release says experts noted YouTube's domain had disappeared from the national DNS registry in February 2026.
• In September 2026 it wrote that since spring 2025 authorities have increasingly carried out "whitelist" shutdowns, which block access to all but state-approved websites.

This index counts websites that fail to load. It does not measure speed or app-store removals, and a shutdown may not show up as a confirmed block.

Russia's VPN rules cover providers, advertising and some searches

This is what the rules and the reporting say, not legal advice.

Sources: Human Rights Watch, Interfax and Meduza. Checked October 2026.

Check the current law before you travel.

Changes since the previous edition

A change can mean the blocking changed. It can also mean volunteers ran tests on different networks this month, so read a small move as a reason to look, not as a trend. For the raw measurements behind any change, see the OONI Explorer page for Russia.

How do people get around these blocks?

OONI describes VPNs and proxies as common circumvention tools, and Human Rights Watch says VPN use in Russia keeps growing, with about 57 million people estimated to use one.

A VPN sends your traffic through a server in another country, so a blocked website sees the VPN's address instead of yours. Four things make that harder in Russia. The first is the VPN's own website.

Scroll sideways to see every column

Country	ExpressVPN	NordVPN	Surfshark	Proton VPN	PureVPN	CyberGhost	Private Internet Access	IPVanish	TotalVPN
RussiaRU	25.2%316 of 1,254Partial	18.6%336 of 1,809Partial	22.3%319 of 1,429Partial	21.5%343 of 1,597Partial	26.9%303 of 1,126Partial	24.3%305 of 1,255Partial	26.4%302 of 1,144Partial	No sign	Not measured

• Widespread confirmed on at least 20% of tests, and still at 20% or more without the biggest network
• Partial confirmed on 2% or more of tests, but under 20% once the biggest network is left out
• One network only not counted
• Anomalies possible blocking, not confirmed
• No sign no sign of blocking in the tests we have, or a few isolated confirmed tests
• Not measured fewer than 30 measurements

† 3 or fewer networks with enough tests

• Russia: 7 of 8 VPN sites measured are blocked at national scale, at confirmed rates of 18.6% to 26.9%. Per site, blocking shows on 1 to 2 of the 7 to 15 networks with enough data. On 7 of them one network, AS39028 (JSC "ER-Telecom Holding"), holds 77% to 86.8% of the confirmed blocks; on all other networks the rate is 4.1% to 5.9%, so 6 of them read as partial and not widespread.

Source: OONI web_connectivity measurements for September 2026, aggregated and classified by WhatWorks.tech. Provider names link to our profiles where we have one.

• The app may not be in the store. Apple's transparency report, as Human Rights Watch relays it, lists 468 "utility" apps, a category that includes VPNs, removed in 2025, and Russian government requests made up nearly 60 percent of all such removals worldwide. In March 2026 Apple removed the popular VPN apps Streisand, V2Box, v2RayTun, Happ and Proxy Utility, and v2RayTun shared a notice that cited a Roskomnadzor demand. Apple told Human Rights Watch it must follow the law everywhere it operates. Russia also pressed Google: a court fined it in February 2026 for not removing VPN apps.
• Paying can be hard. In March 2026 the Ministry of Digital Development ordered the four largest mobile operators to stop mobile billing payments to Apple accounts. Human Rights Watch calls that a popular way to pay for VPNs.
• The traffic can be recognized. In March 2026 Human Rights Watch said that since December the authorities had been blocking the three most popular VPN protocols. In September 2026 a VPN service told it that recent waves also hit whole ranges of IP addresses.

That is why obfuscation matters, a feature that makes VPN traffic look like ordinary web traffic. Proton VPN lists its Stealth protocol, NordVPN offers obfuscated servers on its main apps, and Surfshark offers NoBorders.

The three VPNs that rank highest for Russia in our research

Published results for the same VPN disagree, and blocking arrives in waves, so treat any pick as a starting point. We weigh our research score most, then features such as obfuscation, then device apps and price.

Ranked first of the 4 VPNs with enough research data for using a VPN in Russia

1Proton VPNScoreRussia score8.5/10

Russia in our research

83%

Obfuscation

Yes, Stealth protocol; Linux app only with Proton Protocols (beta)

Devices at once

10

Money-back

30 days

Read our Proton VPN reviewGet Deal

2SurfsharkScoreRussia score8.1/10

Russia in our research

67%

Obfuscation

Yes, NoBorders on Android, iOS, macOS, Windows

Devices at once

Unlimited

Money-back

30 days

Read our Surfshark reviewGet Deal

3ExpressVPNScoreRussia score6.9/10

Russia in our research

50%

Obfuscation

Yes, Automatic on all servers, per ExpressVPN

Devices at once

10

Money-back

30 days

Read our ExpressVPN reviewGet Deal

Ranked by our Russia score out of 10: how well each VPN works for using it in Russia in our research, its obfuscation, apps, devices at once and price. Our scores and the providers' own pages, 19 October 2026. How we rank.

We do not rank Private Internet Access, CyberGhost or IPVanish for Russia, because there is not enough data. Our research has too few recent sources on them.

Our reviews cover each VPN's apps, plans and devices:

• Proton VPN review
• Surfshark review
• NordVPN review

Before you travel:

• Surfshark advises setting up the VPN app before you board the plane, because in some countries you cannot reach a VPN through an app store.
• Proton VPN says its apps are available from sources such as Google Play and the Amazon app store if its website cannot be reached. Russia has pressed Google over VPN apps, so a store listing can change.
• After you connect, our VPN check shows the country websites see.

How to read this data, and its limits

OONI results come from volunteers, so coverage differs by network and city, and a result exists only where someone ran a test. A network with few tests can look cleaner than it is, and a country with many measurements can still hide a network nobody tested.

Confirmed blocks are a floor. OONI confirms block pages and DNS answers tied to censorship, while subtler blocking appears as signs of possible blocking. The index explains the method and its limits, and the Iran page applies the same method to another country. How we score VPNs is on our methodology page.

Get the data