Last time we talked about the $235M machine Russia is building to filter its internet. This time we're gonna talk about what life looks like on the receiving end, and what we do about it.
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The internet in Russia depends on where you live

It’s not just blocked sites — the internet in Russia is unstable across the country, and how well it works depends on where you are: shutdowns and throttling look completely different from one region to the next. Many people have gotten used to mobile internet being switched off, with only a whitelist of approved services still running.
So picture this: your VPN is down again after another wave of blocks, the map won’t load, and you can’t text your family on WhatsApp to say you’re on your way. You walk home and hope nobody’s worried. Not exactly the kind of progress anyone signed up for, huh?
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What’s gone, and what replaced it

Some of the global internet Russia blocked; some Western companies switched off themselves. Most Western AI tools and many Google services don’t work. The domestic replacements come with strings attached: Max’s privacy policy allows handing user data to the FSB, and most big Russian apps check whether your VPN is on.

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How VPNs keep working under the filter

VPNs still keep people in Russia from feeling cut off from the rest of the world, at least online.

Classic protocols like WireGuard and OpenVPN are basically dead in Russia, and so are Western VPNs that use them. The services still standing, us included, spend most of their time on things users never see:

■ Disguising traffic as ordinary HTTPS to normal websites, so the filter sees a boring connection.
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■ Keeping several protocols ready and switching when one gets burned.
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■ Adding servers and spare IPs and rotating them faster.
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■ Using split tunneling, so Russian apps that hate VPNs go around the tunnel, and users don't have to toggle every five minutes.
■ Fighting the whitelist problem. During shutdowns, mobile networks only let you connect to a list of approved IP addresses: government portals, banks, marketplaces. Everything else just doesn’t load, including your VPN server. A clever protocol isn't enough, because the server has to sit somewhere the filter already trusts.

None of these workarounds is permanent. When a cell tower is switched off, no VPN can fix that.
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From “temporary” to normal

Ten years ago this all sounded impossible in Russia too. Every new restriction arrived as “temporary” and “for your safety.”

Now people in Russia try three VPNs before breakfast just to send a WhatsApp message to their family or read the news that isn’t state-approved.
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