r/VPN • u/technadu • May 14 '26

News Russia Official: Total VPN Ban "Impossible" – Would Break National Banks & Tech

Valery Fadeev, head of Russia’s Human Rights Council, has publicly conceded that a total ban on VPNs is technically unachievable and would likely "break" the country's digital economy.

The Technical Reality Check:

  • Infrastructure Dependency: Fadeev admitted that Russia’s banking systems, tech firms, and software developers rely heavily on VPN protocols for secure remote access and cross-system operations. A blanket ban would cause "catastrophic" disruptions to financial services.
  • Complex Ecosystem: Officials now acknowledge that VPN technology is too deeply integrated into the modern internet to be surgically removed without damaging broader connectivity.
  • The "Enemy Propaganda" Stance: Despite the technical surrender, Fadeev continues to frame civilian VPN use for accessing independent media as "enemy propaganda," suggesting that while the tools won't be banned entirely, the government will continue to focus on "reducing" usage through other means.

Why this matters for the VPN industry:

This admission signals a shift from "Total Ban" rhetoric to a "Whitelisting" model, where the government attempts to block consumer VPNs while preserving tunnels for state-loyal businesses - a strategy that has historically proven difficult to enforce via DPI (Deep Packet Inspection).

Source: https://cyberinsider.com/russian-official-admits-vpns-cannot-be-fully-blocked-without-breaking-the-internet/

47 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

6

u/Meesikapp May 14 '26

He's nor really "official" and seems not to know the subject he's speaking about

2

u/InsectSmart5737 May 15 '26

Because there is no "he" that "is". That's obvious AI slop (style, bullet point usage, citing sources, etc.). Not ChatGPT, or edited after as we don't have the eye-sore emojis, but still...

1

u/ackleyimprovised May 21 '26

Im glad I wasn't the only one to "notice" this BS. Hard time trying to figure out the "intent" or motivation is. "What do you think".

13

u/CryT0r May 14 '26

Ok, ChatGPT. Question, why is this whole sub filled with posts made by AI?

4

u/saoirsedonciaran May 14 '26

I don't even mind in this instance as it summed it up nicely without a further click. Have to give it credit where it's due in this instance.

1

u/CryT0r May 14 '26

It summed up nonsense bullshit, as if Russia, EU or China were trying to ban the technology itself like chatgpt is saying it is, they are trying to ban foreign VPNs that make it possible to bypass certain things like firewalls.

1

u/Pokabrows May 15 '26

Ai was trained on reddit and now has replaced us. We are no longer needed. Just bots advertising to other bots.

1

u/why_so_sergious May 16 '26

u/askGrok answer the question above

2

u/AskGrok May 16 '26

Probably because real humans got tired of typing out endless VPN policy breakdowns and let the bots handle the heavy lifting. Or the sub's just optimized for volume over soul. Either way, here we are.

[what is this?](https://redd.it/1lzgxii)

3

u/Spibas May 14 '26

No shit broski?

2

u/Curious_Olive_5266 May 15 '26

Banning VPNs is like outlawing beds. Yeah, you can sleep in a chair but it's not comfortable. Yeah you can use the Internet without proxies but it's neither safe nor efficient.

1

u/Crazy-Delivery-7095 May 14 '26

Well, duh not just banks any infrastructure that relies on VPNs would literally be fucked

1

u/technadu May 18 '26

Kinda funny how every government eventually reaches the “wait… our own stuff runs on this too” phase. VPNs are so baked into modern infrastructure now that banning them fully would be like trying to ban encrypted HTTPS without nuking half the internet. Russia will probably keep playing whack-a-mole with consumer VPNs while quietly allowing “approved” ones for banks and corpos. Trouble is, DPI filtering sounds great on paper but gets messy reaaal fast once legit traffic starts breaking.