The Best VPNs for Russia

Use the table below to compare the best VPNs for Russia based on their ability to bypass web censorship, obfuscation technology, logging policy, and more.

It’s not always possible to download and install a VPN once you’re in Russia, which is why we recommend downloading one (or even two) before you travel.

Fortunately, the three VPNs we recommend in this guide also provide alternative websites to download and install their software within Russia.

Before your travel, contact your chosen VPN’s customer support and ask for the latest URL (mirror link) that works in Russia.

In order to access web content only available in Russia, you’ll need to get a Russian IP address.

But getting a Russian IP address has become trickier in recent years. Many major VPN services, like ExpressVPN and NordVPN, have removed their physical servers from Russia to protect their users from surveillance.

Currently, the most secure and trustworthy VPNs with servers in Russia are Astrill, CyberGhost, Proton VPN (paid version), and Windscribe Pro.

Watch our video tutorial to learn how to get a Russian IP address using a VPN:

As we’ve already mentioned, many popular VPN services have removed their servers in Russia. Here’s a comprehensive list of VPNs that still offer access to Russia servers (whether physical or virtual):

• Astrill
• Bitdefender VPN
• CyberGhost
• FastestVPN
• Hotspot Shield
• Kaspersky VPN
• Perfect Privacy
• Proton VPN
• PureVPN
• TorGuard
• Touch VPN
• VPN Proxy Master
• VyprVPN
• Windscribe Pro
• ZoogVPN

From this list, we only recommend using the following: Astrill, CyberGhost, Hotspot Shield, Perfect Privacy, Proton VPN, TorGuard, or Windscribe.

By encrypting your traffic and changing your IP address, VPN software can access blocked web content that’s deemed incompatible with the views of the Russian government.

As a result, many VPNs are now blocked in Russia as part of a larger attempt to maintain Russian state control over the internet.

Using a VPN in Russia is not illegal in itself, but using an ‘unauthorized’ VPN is against the law.

The punishment for using an unauthorized VPN in Russia is 300,000 RUB (~$3,400) for the user and 700,000 RUB (~$8,000) for the VPN service.

To become an ‘authorized’ VPN service, the company must cooperate with the Russian state and agree to block all the websites in the government’s extensive website blacklist. They must also agree to share user data with Russian security services.

This makes using an ‘authorized’ VPN in Russia useless from a privacy and anti-censorship perspective.

We’re pleased to see many VPNs have ignored these regulations and continue to unblock websites censored by the Russian state. However, there is always a risk that a VPN with physical Russia servers might be forced to cooperate with data requests.

If you use one of our recommended VPNs for Russia, it’s very unlikely your traffic will be identified, intercepted or blocked.

Over the past decade, the Russian government has made several attempts to increase its control over the domestic internet. Here are some of the most important events affecting the country’s online freedoms:

1. Blocking VPNs

Since 2022, Russia has increased internet restrictions in the country, blocking over 4,000 websites and apps including YouTube, Facebook, X, Instagram, BBC News, and Quora.

As a result of these widespread blocks, Russian citizens have turned to VPNs to access banned websites. In retaliation to the rising number of VPN users, the Russian government began restricting access to VPNs like Proton VPN and NordVPN in June 2022.

A total of 167 VPNs have been blocked or restricted in Russia for not cooperating with Russian law, though the full list of VPNs being targeted is unknown.

Starting in April 2023, there have also been emerging reports of popular VPN protocols OpenVPN and WireGuard traffic being blocked by Russian ISPs.

As Russian internet censorship develops, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to bypass these restrictions. This is why we recommend using Astrill VPN or PrivateVPN, which have highly sophisticated obfuscation tools that work in Russia to bypass online firewalls.

2. Blocking Telegram

In April 2018, the Russian Communications Watchdog blocked over 4 million IP addresses in an attempt to ban the private messaging app Telegram.

Telegram remained online, while hundreds of unrelated websites and apps were unintentionally shut down.

The sites and services involved included MasterCard, Twitch, Viber, and popular e-commerce and online banking sites. It took over a month for these apps to be put back online.

3. The Yarovaya Law

In 2016, Russia’s parliament approved the Yarovaya Law.

This law requires all Russian telecom companies and Internet Service Providers (ISP) to store detailed user communication records for six months, and all connection metadata for three years.

This allows the government to access records of everything you do online at any time.

Promoting ‘extremism’ online is punishable by up to five years in prison. Under the Yarovaya Law, ‘extremism’ can include modest protests, including ‘humiliation of national dignity.’

4. Russia’s Domestic Internet

More recently, Russia has initiated the final steps of its censorship strategy — to create its own domestic alternative to the global internet.

In November 2019, the aptly named ‘Sovereign Internet’ law came into force. This law allows the Russian state to switch off Russia’s access to the worldwide web in the event of an “emergency.”

The government also launched its own version of Wikipedia, called Ruwiki, in July 2023. It was created by copying all of Wikipedia’s articles and removing or editing articles with narratives contrary to the Russian government’s official line.

For example, it’s completely missing an article on the Russo-Ukrainian War, and has a heavily cut version of Evgeny Prigozhin’s profile.