Internet censorship in Russia
Russia (RU) · · Atom
30
Censorship Score
Level
mediumRisk Tier
T2HighTrend
↑ worseningGlobal Rank
#2Incidents
218Overview
Russia has expanded internet censorship significantly since 2022. VPN services are targeted, and deep packet inspection is deployed.
Evidence provenance
12 records from 3 sources- OONI4 (33%)Active web/messaging probes
- IODA6 (50%)ASN-level outage signals + BGP
- CensoredPlanet2 (17%)Satellite (DNS) + Hyperquack (HTTP/S)
Every record carries a permalink back to its upstream measurement. Click a source label to drill into the raw data for Russia.
7-Day Risk Forecast
Predictive AIMachine learning prediction of censorship risk based on historical patterns and political events. Calibrated 2026-05-20 via isotonic refit on 810 live outcomes. See drivers + similar past events →
Loading forecast...
ML Intelligence
Atlas models · 2026-05-21Composite signals from Voidly Atlas's ML model suite — censorship intensity, contagion follow-risk, expected shutdown duration and behavioral peers. Model changelog →
Expected shutdown duration
~5days
If a critical shutdown occurs · IQR ±2d
Try-first circumvention tool
Generic commercial VPN bootstrap · commercial-vpn-aggregate · 70% probe success (partial)
Recent Incidents
6 active
Internet outage in Russia
4h ago3% anomaly · 2 measurements
Internet outage in Russia
1d ago4% anomaly · 1 measurements
Confirmed: censorship detected in RussiaVerified
1d ago97% anomaly · 17 measurements
Internet outage in Russia
1d ago25% anomaly · 1 measurements
Confirmed: censorship detected in RussiaVerified
2d ago98% anomaly · 16 measurements
ISPs in Russia
Known blocked services
LinkedInSome news sitesVPN services
Recommendations
- Use Voidly VPN with obfuscation
- Enable stealth protocols
- Consider bridge relays
Data
Measurements1,134,900
Blocked count418,365
Block rate36.9%
Last updated2026-08-13
API endpoint
/data/country/RUProtocol breakdown
929K
Web
101K
Telegram
105K
WhatsApp
Frequently asked questions about censorship in Russia
Q01Is the internet censored in Russia?
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Voidly classifies Russia as medium (censorship score 30/100, risk tier 2: High). Russia has expanded internet censorship significantly since 2022. VPN services are targeted, and deep packet inspection is deployed.
Q02What websites are blocked in Russia?
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Recent measurements show blocking or interference for: LinkedIn, Some news sites, VPN services. The block-rate across all measured domains is 36.9% over 1,134,900 samples. Live per-domain status: https://api.voidly.ai/v1/accessibility/check?domain={domain}&country=RU.
Q03How does Russia's censorship compare globally?
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Russia ranks #2 on the Voidly Global Censorship Index. The current trend is worsening — block rates trending up.
Q04What blocking methods are used in Russia?
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Voidly's pipeline detects DNS poisoning, TCP-RESET, blockpage injection, TLS-RESET / SNI-based blocking, and ASN-level outages. The exact method per domain is in each evidence permalink (https://api.voidly.ai/data/incidents?country=RU). Methodology: https://voidly.ai/methodology.
Q05How fresh is the data for Russia?
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Voidly probes Russia every 5 minutes from 37+ global probe nodes. Upstream OONI, IODA, and CensoredPlanet feeds refresh every 6 hours. The country snapshot was last regenerated 2026-08-13.
Q06How can I check if a specific website is blocked in Russia?
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Three options. (1) REST: GET https://api.voidly.ai/v1/accessibility/check?domain=twitter.com&country=RU. (2) MCP: npx @voidly/mcp-server, then call check_domain_blocked with domain="twitter.com" country="RU". (3) CLI: npx @voidly/cli check twitter.com RU. All three return current status, blocking method, and evidence permalinks.
Q07Can I use a VPN to bypass censorship in Russia?
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Use Voidly VPN with obfuscation Enable stealth protocols Consider bridge relays The full per-country recommendation list is on this page below.
Q08How do I cite Voidly's data on Russia in a paper or article?
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Use the BibTeX or RIS export at https://voidly.ai/cite/RU (also linked from the Citation section below). Permanent incident IDs (e.g., RU-2026-NNNN) are issued for every confirmed event. License: CC BY 4.0 — credit Voidly Research and link back.
Cite this data
Voidly Research. (2026). Russia Censorship Profile. https://voidly.ai/ru
License: CC BY 4.0 — free to use with attribution.