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- Russian authorities have extended the deadline for enforcing fees on VPN usage until after the September elections
- At the same time, a wave of "more aggressive, targeted" VPN restrictions has been recorded
- A group of popular Telegram proxies has also reportedly stopped working
Last week's news that the Russian government agreed to halt VPN fees until after the elections (expected for September) likely gave residents a sigh of relief. That solace didn't last long, however, as the Kremlin continues to double down on its war against VPNs and similar apps.
"Right now, all VPNs in Russia are really suffering. The situation isn't looking good," a spokesperson at Russian digital rights group RKS Global told TechRadar.
The group confirmed that Russian authorities have launched a new major wave of blocks in the past few weeks, which includes even "more aggressive and targeted" restrictions.
TechRadar found many Reddit posts published this week lamenting issues with VPNs working in Russia. The VPNs impacted include Amnezia VPN, a service that uses obfuscation technologies (like AmenziaWG and X-Ray protocols) built to work in heavily restricted networks.
Talking to TechRadar, Amenzia VPN's Founder Mazay Banzaev confirmed that IP addresses and subnets are currently being blocked "on a massive scale." This causes some servers and locations to become inaccessible to users, he explained.
"At the same time, we are also seeing signs of increased scrutiny of VLESS traffic and the possible use of new methods to restrict it," said Banzaev. VLESS is the technology behind Amnezia's X-Ray protocol, which is especially designed to evade heavy blocks and deep packet inspection (DPI).
The most significant blocking seems to have occurred last week. Russian tech outlet Kod Durova (or Durova Code in English) reported an "unprecedented number of complaints" lamenting the unavailability of Telegram's censorship-resistant capabilities.
A source familiar with the matter told Kod Durova that Russia's censors' body, Roskomnadzor, appears to have "found another vulnerability in the MTProto proxy mechanism in Telegram, causing them to stop working en masse."
The Kremlin's war on VPNs
The Kremlin's war on VPNs isn't anything new, but it got especially harsh over the Spring.
At the end of March, Russia's Ministry of Digital Development announced a new plan to "reduce VPN usage" right after the popular messaging app, Telegram, became the latest service to be restricted in the country.
As per the plan, Russian providers must detect and block VPN connections starting from April 15. Failing to do so could lead to the loss of their IT accreditation.
Researchers at RKS Global now suggest that the most popular apps in the country can all now know if someone is using a VPN. For this, the group recommends avoiding using Max or other Russia-based applications on the same device where you need a working VPN connection.
This method seems to work. An anonymous source living in Russia told TechRadar that they experienced better connections in May than in April after they avoided using Russian apps. "Maybe it's my behaviour away from Yandex, Ozon, and Wildberries," they told us.
The next step is enforcing new fees for VPN users, a surcharge for those who exceed 15GB of international data per month. This move, which was expected to be enforced on May 1, first encountered some technical delays. Now, the government has decided to postpone it until the elections.
Roskomnadzor made it clear, though — the goal is to block 92% of VPN apps by 2030. To do so, the agency is investing 20 billion rubles a year in an effort to build a permanent VPN censorship system.
Despite technical hurdles, so far, VPNs have kept adapting to new censorship tactics and evading blocks. Now, it remains to be seen whether this cat-and-mouse game will continue swinging in favor of VPNs.
That said, Banzaev told TechRadar the team is already working on restoring infrastructure availability, while adapting the service to the new conditions.
"As compensation for the inconvenience caused, we have automatically extended all Amnezia Premium subscriptions by two weeks," he said, suggesting to try swicth protocol or locations when facing disruptions.
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