Russian users have rushed to circumvent blockages: the number of VPN app downloads in March increased 14-fold compared to last year, Kommersant reports, citing Digital Budget data. In the first three months of 2026 alone, downloads reached 21.27 million, and in March, three of the top five services exceeded 2.5 million downloads each.
According to Sensor Tower, by the end of 2025, the active user base of the top five VPN services in Russia grew to 7.3 million people. Experts attribute this growth to the lack of full-fledged Russian analogues for blocked resources – the audience is willing to master new technologies to maintain access to familiar services.
Meanwhile, authorities are tightening the fight against circumvention. As of late April, 116 VPN services are unavailable in the Russian App Store – more than 20 of them were removed at the request of Roskomnadzor. By January, the agency had restricted access to 439 circumvention services, and since December 2025, it began more actively blocking additional VPN protocols – SOCKS5, VLESS, and L2TP.
In March, the Ministry of Digital Development discussed new rules for IT companies: platforms that do not restrict users' access via VPN may be excluded from the specialized register and the "white list" of sites accessible when the internet is disconnected. Anatoly Denisov, COO of "Rating Runeta," noted that such measures reduce activity on services that implement blockages – this is already noticeable by the drop in sales on marketplaces.
At the same time, experts remind: it is impossible to completely ban VPN as a technology. Roskomnadzor previously stated that it does not plan to restrict access to corporate VPNs.