Zen blog post in Russian
https://dzen.ru/a/aeKBzlYsh1cFV3dH

Operators and marketplaces began to strangle VPN users.

Users of Russian services are increasingly facing restrictions when using VPNs.

So, when you launch the MTS application, a notification appears that VPN is enabled, which may cause some of the data not to be displayed. In the MegaFon app, the service also recommends disabling the VPN for proper operation. Beeline also shows a similar warning, emphasizing that the application works more stable without a VPN.

The restrictions do not only affect telecom operators. Large marketplaces are also stepping up the fight against blocking circumvention tools. In particular, when trying to log in via VPN, users may encounter unstable operation of platforms such as Wildberries, Ozon and VkusVill.

In the near future, we can expect that more and more services will either warn about possible failures or completely block access when the VPN is turned on.

In recent years, the Russian Internet model has been built as a managed system rather than an open network. A VPN breaks this model because it hides where the traffic is going, makes it difficult to filter, and makes the user "invisible" to some of the control mechanisms. Simply put, without a VPN, the Internet can be regulated, with a VPN it is much more difficult. After signals from the government (including from Maksut Shadaev), companies began to restrict VPNs themselves. Due to the risks of losing accreditation, tax benefits, and access to government support. As a result, business becomes a tool for policy implementation. Part of the real explanation for blocking VPNs is security. As a VPN complicates the fight against fraud, geolocation detection, and account protection. This is especially important for banks, marketplaces, and telecom operators. But it's important that this is just an additional argument, not the main driver. A complete ban on VPNs is inconvenient and risky, because business and IT need it, a complete ban would cause a strong reaction, and it is technically difficult to block everything at once. Therefore, a strategy is used: not to prohibit, but to make the use as inconvenient as possible. VPNs in Russia are restricted not because it is a "harmful technology", but because it gives access to blocked content, reduces the manageability of the Internet, and complicates user control. In such a system, a VPN is not a tool, but a hindrance.

It's not just the Ministry of Finance that is behind the technological limitations. It is reported that control over the Russian Internet has passed to the Second FSB Service (the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order and the Fight against Terrorism). It was this unit, which was previously linked to the Alexei Navalny case, that began implementing restrictions in the summer of 2025. At the meeting at the end of March 2026, employees of the Second Service attended in person and "distributed papers to companies with demands for signature, threatening consequences for refusal." One of the participants in the meeting described what was happening as follows: "Everything looked absolutely absurd — they just printed out the sheets of paper, handed them to the heads of the companies, told them to sign and immediately took the sheets back."

VPN blocking in Russia is a multi—level government policy that includes: direct instructions from the president and control by the FSB, economic coercion of IT companies through the threat of deprivation of benefits, infrastructural restrictions (a moratorium on channel expansion), financial barriers (blocking VPN payments through mobile operators). At the same time, the authorities deliberately avoid direct prohibition and criminal liability, preferring "economic filtration" and "voluntary-compulsory" mechanisms.

For a mass user, this means constant crashes, speed drops, and the need to switch between multiple VPN services. The experience of other countries (Iran, China) shows that the user experience is irreversibly deteriorating: connections become unstable, access is unpredictable, and the circumvention tools themselves require more and more effort to use.

And the most annoying thing here is not even a VPN. And the fact that the very logic of the Internet is changing: from an environment where you decide how to use it, to an environment where they gently, carefully and quietly explain to you how to do it. And judging by how things are developing, this is just the beginning.

RCN's agitation against using a VPN. At the same time, all this is generated using American neural networks that do not operate in Russia:

I write and shoot. Join me

Author's video content
https://www.youtube.com/c/ViolettaWennman

Political trash
https://www.youtube.com/@Ship-Shard

I invite you to the telegram channel
https://t.me/shipshard

Highly Social on Zen
https://dzen.ru/shipshard

To buy caramels to ruin your teeth
https://dzen.ru/shipshard?donate=true

My hobbies are history, philosophy, psychology, music, economics, politics, and sociology. I write about this and much more. Professional model. She has performed at international music festivals (vocals, dancing, imitation of vocalists). I am studying at the Academy of Arts - the film and art industry, I am a producer and the owner of a video studio.

I am glad to see all of you in my blogs.

I'm waiting for you here so I don't get lost. https://t.me/shipshard