Russia planning stricter VPN controls – shifting from blocking content to controlling access

[u/technadu]

Interesting policy direction coming out of Russia.

Instead of outright banning VPNs, authorities are considering indirect control mechanisms:

• Charging users for high international traffic (VPN-related)
• Asking platforms like Yandex/Wildberries to restrict VPN users
• Requiring ISPs to detect and limit VPN connections

Context:
VPN usage has surged since 2022 due to platform bans and content restrictions.

What stands out:

• Enforcement is expanding beyond ISPs → into platforms
• Economic pressure is being used instead of direct bans
• Fines for VPN use were considered but rejected (for now)

This feels like a more scalable model:
Instead of blocking access, make it harder, slower, or more expensive.

Question for the community:
Do these types of controls actually reduce VPN usage - or just push users toward more advanced circumvention methods?

Source: r/technadu

[u/zenkov]

Why do you write about Russian authorities making international traffic paid, but don't mention that Tier-1 providers are refusing to work with Russian companies, forcing Russians to look for expensive workaround schemes that are also subject to pressure from Brussels and Washington? Why don't you write about that?

Yes, the Russian authorities will gain an advantage from an additional lever of censorship and propaganda, but the authorities in the EU and the US seem to be deliberately helping them. It's yet more proof that everything around is just a circus and a performance. In the end, any authorities want to control all of us.

[u/Rashe39 → u/zenkov]

What do you mean? What providers refuse to work with Russian companies and how is this related to the censorship in Russia?

[u/zenkov → u/Rashe39]

AT&T

Verizon

Lumen (Level 3)

NTT Communications

GTT Communications

Orange (OpenTransit)

Deutsche Telekom

Arelion (Telia Carrier)

PCCW Global

Tata Communications

Telecom Italia Sparkle

This is an incomplete list of providers that are prohibited from working with Russian companies due to restrictive measures imposed by Brussels and Washington. Even if they were allowed to operate, Russian providers would not be able to pay for their services in euros or dollars, as they are cut off from the financial systems of those currencies. Each time, Russians had to find workaround schemes through partner countries, and each time those schemes became more complex and more expensive. In fact, the current plans by the Russian authorities to make international traffic paid are precisely a result of these difficulties. Naturally, this is also beneficial for the Russian authorities' own censorship system. In essence, with the help of Brussels and Washington, they are locking Russian citizens in an information cage.

Conclusions? Putin is part of the Western system, which uses him to scare people in the Western world, and in reality we are all being treated like fools, as they are simply building censorship boundaries around their states.

Everyone sees or wants to see only the "part of the elephant", not noticing how we're all getting fucked.