Detect, block, evade: how to survive Russia’s VPN crackdown

Starting from today (April 15), Russian service providers are required to restrict VPN users.

Last week, Russia's Minister of Digital Development, Maksut Shadaev, instructed over 20 Russian online service providers on how to detect and block VPN connections. Failing to do so could lead to the loss of their IT accreditation.

VPN services and similar circumvention tools have become a lifeline for Russian residents as internet restrictions have increased. Even platforms like Telegram are feeling the pinch of censorship but some workarounds remain.

The impact on new blocking obligations

The newly enforced measures are part of the Kremlin's plan to "reduce VPN usage" through new blocking obligations for companies, alongside fines and fees for people caught using a virtual private network (VPN) or similar circumvention tools.

As Windscribe's CEO, Yegor Sak, noted, the detection guidelines are mostly aimed at Russian domestic platforms, not at blocking VPN connections themselves. "They want these companies to check if users have a VPN running on their device and deny access if they do," Sak told TechRadar.

As reported by local news outlet Meduza, Russia’s major mobile carriers began warning users on Wednesday that their official company apps may not work properly when a VPN is active. Also, major Russian platforms like Yandex and VK are reported to have issued similar warnings.

Talking to TechRadar last week, Amnezia VPN's Founder, Mazay Banzaev, already confirmed that some marketplaces have begun complying with new rules ahead of the deadline, blocking users who were using VPNs.

"The sites slow down or stop loading altogether, and product pages fail to display," he explained at the time, adding that previously "services only warned about 'incorrect operation when using a VPN,' but now they are restricting access to their catalogs."

Stricter VPN detection seems to have been the goal for a while. Back in March, security researchers warned that a state-controlled application, MAX, may have the capabilities to know if you are using a VPN.

According to a technical expert at Russian digital rights group RKS Global, these new developments mark a shift from passive internet censorship to active censorship. The group compares these measures to what China did in the past when it tried to block the obfuscated Shadowsocks protocol.

"It’s no longer just the provider’s equipment identifying suspicious or undesirable traffic — additional data is now collected from the user’s device, and decisions are then made on whether to block something or not," RKS Global told TechRadar.

So, are VPNs still working in Russia?

Considering that the new blocking obligations are being deployed today, the situation is expected to evolve — and we will keep updating this page. That said, some censorship-resistant VPNs confirmed to TechRadar that they are still working in Russia despite the latest wave of restrictions.

Among those is Russia-based Amnezia VPN, which has recently released a new and more powerful version of its flagship stealth protocol, AmneziaWG.

"Currently, all Amnezia services — Free, Premium, and Self-Hosted — are operating normally," said company Founder, Banzaev. "However, we have already made a number of recommendations for our users."

After a beta Android release last February, Windscribe has now rolled out a standalone Stealth VPN app for mobile users, designed to beat stricter censorship like that in Russia, Iran, and China.

"To the best of our knowledge, we're the only commercial VPN, besides AmneziaVPN, to fully implement AmneziaWG server-side. It's a cat-and-mouse game, and always has been, but we're actively investing in staying ahead of it," said Windscribe's Sak.

NymVPN has been boosting its censorship-resistant features lately, too. Harry Halpin, NymVPN's CEO, told TechRadar:

"We work under some circumstances, such as deep packet inspection, where the regime tries to block based on looking at known traffic types like Wireguard, as we can disguise our VPN traffic like normal website traffic."

Yet, Halpin pointed out that running a VPN won't be possible "when the regime moves to a 'whitelist' where only allowed websites work, or if the entire internet is shut.

How to evade VPN detection

Sak from Windscribe recommends connecting with one of the provider's obfuscated VPN protocols, such as its AmneziaWG integration, Stealth, or WStunnel.

"Standard WireGuard or OpenVPN is trivially detected by DPI. You need something that disguises the traffic," said Sak, while adding that "Router-level VPN setups are also worth considering."

Banzaev from Amnezia VPN advises both users of the self-hosted VPN, Premium, and Free apps to enable split tunnelling. Authorities themselves have, in fact, identified both split tunneling and router VPNs among the challenges to VPN detection.

"For users of Amnezia Free and Premium, the option to enable automatic split tunneling will also be introduced, and protection against the detection of our VPN servers by such methods will be implemented," Banzaev added.

Telegram's CEO, Pavel Durov, is also urging people in Russia to "stock up on several VPNs" as the messaging platform deploys new technology to combat the government-imposed ban. In our best free VPN guide, you can find all the most secure free products to do so without breaking your bank.

That's crucial because this allows you to hop from one app to another in case of disruptions. As Sak from Windscribe put it "no single approach is guaranteed to work forever."

Halpin from NymVPN also expects greater restrictions on official app stores. To bypass any potential blocks in downloading the app, he then suggests sideloading the APK for the Nym app and installing Graphene with F-droid as an alternative app store.

RKS Global experts also recommend using separate devices whenever possible to minimize the chances of Russian application monitoring on-device VPN levels.

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