- Amnezia VPN has restored its Premium service in Russia
- Amnezia Free is expected to return in the coming weeks
- Roskomnadzor blocked more than 90% of its local servers between June 1 and 15
Russian privacy provider Amnezia VPN has successfully restored its Premium service to users in the country, after suffering an unprecedented state-backed infrastructure strike.
Between June 1 and 15, millions of Amnezia users in Russia lost their connection after the state censor, Roskomnadzor (RKN), launched a multi-pronged offensive that blocked more than 90% of the provider’s local servers.
The attack represents a dramatic escalation in Moscow’s digital crackdown, which deploys automated network fingerprinting and targeted cyberattacks to actively hunt VPN infrastructure.
While the Premium tier is now back online with a newly updated stealthier protocol, Amnezia has confirmed that the Russian stack of its free tier will return in the coming weeks.
For Internet users trapped behind Russia’s “sovereign Internet” firewall, the stakes have never been higher. Identifying the best VPN has become a critical lifeline for the free web as the state pours enormous resources into its censorship machine.
A sophisticated censorship machine valued at $898 million
According to the analysis of the Amnezia incident, Roskomnadzor has abandoned basic IP blocking in favor of an aggressive and highly automated set of rules.
By analyzing network traffic, Russian authorities appear to have learned to identify the unique “network fingerprint” of specific VPN protocols, including the Amnezia-owned AmneziaWG protocol.
Once RKN’s Internet filtering and censorship system (known as TSPU) detects this fingerprint, it automatically blacklists the server’s IP address. During the June attack, Amnezia attempted to change its servers, but saw the new IP addresses blocked within hours.
This technological leap is largely financed by the State. Forbes Russia and Kommersant estimate that almost 60 billion rubles (770 million) are being spent to strengthen the filtering system, while The Moscow Times projects a broader RKN budget allocation of 70 billion rubles (898 million) between 2026 and 2028.
To compound the technical attack, RKN combined its deep packet inspection with traditional hacking tactics, launching active DDoS attacks on VPN services. This wave of attacks even targeted Amnezia’s website, while deploying phishing schemes against the provider’s staff.
Mazay Banzaev, founder of Amnezia VPN, believes this escalation is proof that Roskomnadzor had been preparing a new set of rules for the TSPU for a long time and fully implemented them on June 1. It now hopes that these measures will be extended to other services operating in Russia.
“These practices have also been used in other countries, Iran and China, for example, but in Russia they have been taken to a new level of automation: on average, a server crashes within a few hours after users start connecting to it,” Banzaev said.
Recover more safely
Despite the severity of the attack, Amnezia confirmed that no infrastructure was breached and that user data remained secure, crediting regular security audits carried out by independent cybersecurity firm 7ASecurity.
To bypass the new TSPU ruleset, Amnezia has released a new version of its AmneziaWG protocol. This update removes the specific feature that allowed censors to identify VPN traffic in the first place. Users must update their AmneziaVPN client to restore their connection, as the provider has intentionally disabled older, vulnerable versions of the app to prevent repeated attacks.
To compensate for downtime, Amnezia also compensates affected users. Premium subscribers with a 6-month plan will receive an additional month of service, while those with 12-month plans will receive two additional months.
The provider now has its sights set on future expansion, noting that interest in bypassing state censorship continues to rise globally. Amnezia plans to expand its network to 100 locations while developing new open source methods to circumvent censors.
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