MOSCOW – In a Moscow coffee shop known for reliable Wi-Fi, a 41-year-old interior designer named Irina demonstrates the digital gymnastics now required for Russian internet users. She activates a virtual private network to message international friends through WhatsApp, which authorities have blocked domestically.
Minutes later, she disables the VPN to purchase train tickets from the national railway website, which refuses service to users masking their locations. Then she reaches for a separate phone to check client messages on MAX, the government-approved messaging platform.
“Of course this is all a huge pain in the backside, but what else can we do?” Irina said, requesting identification by first name only due to the topic’s sensitivity. “You get used to it and spend your days turning VPNs on and off, toggling between different messengers and switching between different virtual countries or phones to use the apps and websites you need.”
This year’s intensified internet controls represent the most severe digital restrictions under the current administration, affecting everything from banking to transportation and online shopping. The disruptions have frustrated citizens ahead of September parliamentary elections, drawing criticism from opposition groups, business executives, and even typically apolitical social media personalities.
Public approval ratings have declined amid the digital restrictions, combined with inflation, increased taxes, and conflict fatigue. State polling shows support dropping from 75.1% in February to 65.6% in April – the lowest since the Ukraine conflict began in 2022. Current ratings hover near 67%.
Government officials promote domestically-developed alternatives to foreign applications as part of a “digital sovereignty” initiative. However, many users remain skeptical of MAX after warnings from opposition figures and Western technology companies about potential surveillance capabilities, which the app’s owner VK denies.
Keeping the government app isolated on a secondary device provides peace of mind, Irina explained.
Virtual private networks function by routing internet traffic through external servers outside the country. March alone saw 9.2 million downloads of the five leading VPN services from Google Play – fourteen times the previous year’s volume, according to Digital Budget, a Moscow consulting firm tracking online behavior, as reported by newspaper Kommersant.
“We’ve never seen this kind of take-up rate before,” said Sarkis Darbinyan, an internet freedom advocate operating from Lisbon. Moscow has labeled Darbinyan a “foreign agent,” a designation applied to individuals viewed as conducting anti-state activities.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly justified internet controls as necessary during what officials characterize as an existential confrontation with Western nations over Ukraine. However, the president instructed government agencies in April to adopt a gentler approach, telling legislators it was “counterproductive” to “focus solely on bans and restrictions.”
Government representatives did not respond to inquiries for this report.
Although many authoritarian nations impose strict internet limitations, Russian citizens had grown accustomed to considerable online freedom. While security agencies have historically targeted domestic critics, authorities seldom interfered with foreign app usage or Western media access before the Ukraine war.
Since last year, the FSB security service – the Soviet KGB’s successor – has directed telecommunications companies to disable mobile internet for extended periods across various regions, claiming Ukrainian attack drones utilize these networks for navigation assistance.
Officials have also blocked or slowed connections to an expanding list of applications and websites that state communications regulator Roskomnadzor claims host illegal and extremist material.
WhatsApp and Telegram have accused the government of attempting to compel citizens toward less secure, state-mandated applications.
Disruptions escalated in March with nearly three weeks of outages in Moscow, frustrating senior bureaucrats who depend on internet access and Telegram for coordinating votes for the ruling United Russia party, according to two sources with Kremlin connections and various analysts.
“The issue is not whether the regime will be able to secure the outcome it wants (it will), but whether the electoral process will be a smooth one,” Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote in April.
Even loyal government employees download VPNs and maintain multiple phones to separate government-backed applications like MAX from their personal digital activities, sources informed Reuters.
Some officials also disable microphones and cameras on devices containing MAX installations in case the FSB can access them, one source revealed.
“Even if you’re not up to any mischief, nobody wants the FSB reading your messages,” the source explained.
The president’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, openly demonstrates VPN usage by posting regularly on X, which requires such tools for domestic access.
While VPN use remains legal, Roskomnadzor has blocked access to hundreds of these services, creating an ongoing battle with users who must continuously download new services to reach desired content.
In April, government offices, financial institutions, and major online retailers – following regulator instructions – began blocking access for VPN-enabled users. This coincided with a 10% traffic decrease for Wildberries, the country’s equivalent to Amazon, according to Digital Budget.
“As market participants note, many users do not switch off their VPN to access the site and simply lose interest in making a purchase if they cannot open the product page,” Digital Budget stated in a Telegram post.
The percentage of citizens acknowledging VPN use rose from 23% in 2022 to 36% this year, according to the Levada Center, an independent polling organization on Moscow’s foreign agent list.
Tech-savvy younger adults sometimes purchase VPN subscriptions for their parents or create custom-designed VPNs. However, many citizens prefer applications and websites functioning without such tools.
MAX, launched last year, reported over 85 million daily users as of May, according to its owner.
Reuters TV interviewed half a dozen office workers and pedestrians near Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, revealing divided public opinion. Half expressed frustration with the digital environment, while others reported successful adaptation without VPN usage.
“Most Russians simply do not see the need to go to any extra trouble – what is readily available is quite sufficient for them,” Levada director Denis Volkov wrote in April.
When navigation applications failed in Moscow during March, delivery drivers for Flowwow, an online flower and gift marketplace, used vendors’ Wi-Fi connections to download customer directions, said Yuri Semichastnov, the company’s logistics head.
Paper map sales more than doubled in the capital during the shutdown, according to Wildberries data.
As frustration mounted, officials have moderated their messaging recently, assuring the public that mobile internet shutdowns are temporary.
A plan requiring mobile providers to charge customers extra for using more than 15 gigabytes of foreign data monthly was delayed in May, Russian media reported, suggesting the VPN-targeting requirement would likely be implemented after the election.
The president has also requested government agencies and the FSB collaborate to ensure critical services like healthcare platforms and online payment systems remain operational.
Irina, the interior designer, doesn’t anticipate her digital life improving soon.
“In Russia, we have a saying: Nothing is more permanent than the temporary,” she said.
