The law has been in place since September 2025 and many people took it lightly. Only now have authorities started fining people in Russia for promoting VPN services or any tools that help bypass blocked resources.
FAS (Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service) has opened its first administrative cases over so-called “improper advertising” of VPN services. The cases were launched in the Vologda and Khabarovsk regions and target VPN mentions on Telegram and WhatsApp.
Authorities claim that even posting links or listing VPN services in profiles counts as illegal advertising. Fines can reach up to 80 000 rubles (~$1000) for individuals and 500 000 rubles (~$6500) for companies.
Legal experts say the law is being applied far beyond its original scope. What was supposed to punish active promotion now covers almost any mention of VPNs at all.
In practice, this erases the line between advertising and simply sharing information, making it harder to talk about tools that help people bypass censorship.
If you ask us, this looks like a step toward making VPN usage itself illegal.
3 Comments
This is really xуёvo)
What are the possible methods to solve this problem?
How can I disguise my traffic so it can't be detected as a proxy or VPN? Do you think vless reality is a panacea, given the constant improvements in dpi?
I highly doubt they'll spend their time and money to develop cases against VPN users. But Social media is easier to control.