- Russia’s media regulator has proposed a “state VPN” for IT specialists
- Roskomnadzor seeks to restore access to developer platforms inadvertently blocked by its own VPN crackdown
- Industry experts are concerned that the tool could enable state surveillance and create a “privileged tier” of Internet users.
In a deeply ironic twist, Russia’s federal media regulator, Roskomnadzor, plans to create a unified “state VPN” to help the country’s IT specialists bypass its own aggressive Internet restrictions. The proposal aims to solve a problem of the government’s own making: its war on censorship bypass tools is now preventing developers from accessing essential foreign coding resources.
The plan was revealed at a meeting on June 8 between Roskomnadzor deputy head Oleg Terlyakov and several IT companies. As first reported by independent Russian news outlet The Bell, the meeting was called after a wave of complaints from developers who found themselves cut off from vital international platforms. These include the code-sharing site GitHub, repositories for the Python programming language, and the design tool Figma.
Instead of loosening its grip, the regulator’s proposed solution is a government-controlled VPN designed for “those who really need it.”
The move highlights a growing conflict within Russia: the state’s desire for a tightly controlled Internet clashes with the practical needs of its strategically important technology industry.
While a VPN is the right tool for the job, relying on one of the best VPN services, which prioritizes user privacy through audited no-logging policies, is the standard for secure access—something a state-run tool is unlikely to offer.
A cure worse than the disease?
Details about this unified state VPN are still scarce, but reaction from Russia’s IT community has been overwhelmingly negative.
Instead of welcoming the proposal, developers and industry experts have called the idea “murky.” Their main fear is that a centralized, state-controlled VPN is the perfect tool for monitoring and surveillance.
Directing all traffic through a single government-run portal would give Roskomnadzor unprecedented visibility into the work of every developer who uses it. A source who attended the meeting told reporters: “It will be even easier to isolate the Russians from international development tools if everyone starts using the same VPN.”
There are also fears that it could prove counterproductive internationally. “It could easily block access from abroad, and the idea itself seems shady,” another source at a Russian IT association told The Bell.
Commentators fear the proposal also risks creating a two-tier Internet, where a “privileged caste with full access” will emerge.
Russia’s war on VPNs
This latest development is just one chapter in the Kremlin’s long battle against tools that offer Russians an uncensored window to the Internet.
While Roskomnadzor has been blocking access to popular VPN services for years, the blocking has now intensified as, since April, Russian providers have been required to detect and block active VPN connections.
More recently, the country’s censorship body was even accused of launching DDoS attacks against VPN providers in an effort to disrupt their services. Despite these aggressive measures, Russian officials have also had to admit that completely banning VPNs is “simply impossible.”
In the face of unbreakable technology and an increasingly isolated digital economy, Roskomnadzor’s plan to build its own VPN looks less like a solution and more like a Trojan horse, offering access with one hand and potentially bolstering surveillance with the other. For Russian developers, it is a “solution” that few will trust.
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