# Russia’s Internet Blocks **URL:** https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/russia-s-internet-blocks/36712 **Category:** Questions **Created:** 2026-03-31T14:25:55Z **Posts:** 31 ## Post 1 by @Cork — 2026-03-31T14:25:56Z NYT piece worth reading on what’s happening with Russia’s internet right now: [Article](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/world/europe/russia-internet-restrictions.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share) Quick background: Since early March, Moscow and St. Petersburg have experienced widespread mobile internet blackouts — not just blocked apps, but full mobile data shutdowns. Telegram is reportedly being blocked entirely starting in April. The government regulator Roskomnadzor now has authority to disconnect Russia from the global internet entirely. Some regions are on “whitelist” mode — meaning everything is blocked except state-approved services like Yandex and government portals. This article accompanied a longer piece about the impact of the outages. It’s scary. I’m interested in whether or not there’s a way around this government censorship which could expand to Europe and North America under the right circumstances. --- ## Post 2 by @FranklyFlawless — 2026-03-31T20:14:23Z The Tor Project team is working on a solution to distribute WebTunnel bridges over email in addition to Telegram: > **[Distribute WebTunnel bridges by email (#298) · Issues · The Tor Project /...](https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys/-/issues/298)** > > Given the increasing problems with obfs4 in Russia, should we distribute WebTunnel bridge by email as well? I just got... The due date on the issue is May 12th, 2026. In the meantime, use this first-stop solution for circumvention: > **[The Tor Project | Privacy & Freedom Online](https://bridges.torproject.org/)** > > Defend yourself against tracking and surveillance. Circumvent censorship. --- ## Post 3 by @ls.skuggi — 2026-03-31T21:36:35Z There is an ongoing thread regarding “white-listing” of IP and / or domains in Russia at the Tor Project forum. (see below) As far as I understand Tor webtunnel bridges are not the solution, not even with `sni-imitation`. > **[Help find working method to circumvent Internet shutdown method in Russia!](https://forum.torproject.org/t/help-find-working-method-to-circumvent-internet-shutdown-method-in-russia/20600)** > > Recently they started testing so-called “white-list”. At this moment it is being tested only by mobile providers. It already makes a lot of problems to mobile network users but in the future, it may be extended to other network providers. How... --- ## Post 4 by @Encounter5729 — 2026-03-31T22:58:11Z Russia is moving to a whitelist-only Internet, so any bypass will no longer work. That being said, Russian netizens have started using [Meshstatic](https://meshtastic.org/), a decentralised network that doesn’t use Internet. [Article](https://kyivindependent.com/russias-push-to-ban-telegram-will-hinder-its-economy-war-effort/) For now, they use it to communicate with friends and family, for up to ~~100 km~~ 10-50km. But it would technically be possible to set up clandestine networks where someone get access to normal internet. --- ## Post 5 by @TheDoc — 2026-03-31T23:09:48Z Next step could be criminalizing Meshtastic if its usage becomes too widespread, then I guess Russians would only be left with the Sneakernet. --- ## Post 6 by @Encounter5729 — 2026-04-01T00:01:50Z > [@TheDoc](#): > > Next step could be criminalizing Meshtastic if its usage becomes too widespread, then I guess Russians would only be left with the Sneakernet They can try banning it but they can’t confiscate existing devices. Also, the cost of banning those is superior to the benefits, for now. (To be fair, that’s also the case of Russian internet whitelisting ). I don’t think they will bother unless the Russian meshstatic community can figure out a way to create an actual internet (at minimum a public text platform/forum) with the tech. --- ## Post 7 by @securitybrahh — 2026-04-01T01:16:16Z Nymvpn? --- ## Post 8 by @Cork — 2026-04-01T13:43:58Z The Tor threads are interesting. Thanks for posting them. After reading them it seems like the most effective “solution” is social and legal, not technology. And, so far, at least from my limited outsider view, it’s a cat and mouse game with the Russian government marshaling unlimited resources. Will organized political resistance, international pressure, and the economic self-harm Russia imposes on itself by cutting off its technical class from the global internet end this censorship nonsense? A full whitelist accelerates brain drain among exactly the people Russia needs to maintain the infrastructure. So, maybe there are cracks in that infrastructure that can be exploited. But, this seems like a return to Soviet style censorship. --- ## Post 9 by @Regime6045 — 2026-04-01T16:25:45Z ![a man in a suit and tie is behind a sign that says russia|833x471.69879518072287](https://forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/3X/8/7/87d63029e8a550f4886dff8b523ac5f44adeb8f4.gif) --- ## Post 10 by @arise1984 — 2026-04-01T17:06:15Z I wonder if Russia will be the next China GFW. I got an old grandfathered Yandex account from back when they do mailhosting for custom domain for free. Back then they allowed upto 1000 mailbox of 5gb each for $0, now gimped to just 5 mailbox due to the sanction and whatnot but its still works and actual somewhat nice with ipv6, caldav, caldav etc. Can’t send nor receive mail to Proton due to blockage at their isp level though. --- ## Post 11 by @Encounter5729 — 2026-04-02T21:56:16Z > [@arise1984](#): > > I wonder if Russia will be the next China GFW China still operates on a extensive blacklist and heuristic-based system, as to keep those who really want to connected. Russia has moved well pass that in a very short period. Russia is now an hybrid between China model and North Korea’s --- ## Post 12 by @tauiode — 2026-04-03T15:01:32Z I read an article in the FT (IIRC) a few months ago that said the Russian’s are investing heavily in developing their own tech’ mainly because western sanctions have exposed some serious vulnerabilities caused by dependencies on western companies for both hardware and software maintenance by the big tech giants. TBH I don’t blame them because the internet has been hijacked by the western tech’ giants such that it has now become a billboard for western commerce and government propaganda with the US taking the lion’s share as you would expect. Expect to see two internets in the not too distant future, intereast and interwest. North America and maybe Europe in one, with China and Russia along with the global south in the other. All depends upon who is resident in the Whitehouse, but wouldn’t surprise me though if the EU decided to go it alone too. --- ## Post 13 by @OldGuy — 2026-04-03T15:51:36Z > [@Encounter5729](#): > > Russia is moving to a whitelist-only Internet, so any bypass will no longer work. That being said, Russian netizens have started using [Meshstatic](https://meshtastic.org/), a decentralised network that doesn’t use Internet. [Article](https://kyivindependent.com/russias-push-to-ban-telegram-will-hinder-its-economy-war-effort/) > > For now, they use it to communicate with friends and family, for up to ~~100 km~~ 10-50km. But it would technically be possible to set up clandestine networks where someone get access to normal internet. Bandwidth on Meshtastic pretty much limits it to messaging and other low bandwidth applications. The “radio preset” with the highest bandwidth maxes out at just under 22 kpbs, not much faster than old analog telephone dial up modems. See: [Radio Settings | Meshtastic](https://meshtastic.org/docs/overview/radio-settings/) --- ## Post 14 by @pg.user — 2026-04-03T17:12:20Z Meshtastic is nonexistent right now, size wise. Tor’s bridges infrastructure is working though and stable enough considering the circumstances. I guess DW/I2P is the only way to go. Get ready friends, no matter where you are, they learn from each other eagerly and fast. --- ## Post 15 by @Encounter5729 — 2026-04-03T21:53:00Z > [@OldGuy](#): > > Bandwidth on Meshtastic pretty much limits it to messaging and other low bandwidth applications. The “radio preset” with the highest bandwidth maxes out at just under 22 kpbs, not much faster than old analog telephone dial up modems In an ideal world, this would be enough for everything that doesn’t need video and images. But I am not even sure this forum could load with under a MB --- ## Post 16 by @anon64387538 — 2026-04-03T22:03:57Z Yeah, and to add a few points, Meshtastic is actually just not a viable replacement for basically anything except for unencrypted text sent over very short distances where anyone can see what you sent. Actual range is about 1km in actual use cases in my testing with a wide range of devices. (Unless you set up a network of broadcast antennas, but this makes it even less likely your messages get delivered due to how they do routing.) Even over very short distances there’s no guarantee your message gets delivered due to the way they do routing. Enabling encryption makes setting up the network vastly more janky and basically makes it very hard to add new members, let alone anything “public". It’s barely a viable solution for sending small amounts of text, definitely not for internet. --- ## Post 17 by @tauiode — 2026-04-04T05:58:50Z Before the problem with Ukraine became militarised the Russian’s had already taken a majority stake holding in the Finnish company Jolla, better known for the development of Sailfish OS. Using Sailfish OS as a base they have now released their own mobile OS ‘Aurora’ initially only for governmental and military purposes but the plan it would seem is to release it to the public later this year. It’s native linux (no Android) although it most likely could run Waydroid in a container same as Sailfish can. If you are a FOSS fan you will be impressed as it has desktop capabilities built in too. The screenshots in post 357 onward are eye candy for sure. Chinese hardware as you would expect as the Chinese are buying so much oil and gas off them they need to balance the books somehow, so exporting consumer goods into Russia to replace the previous but now sanctioned European manufacturers is top priority for the Chinese, particularly so in the automotive sector. Here’s a link to the thread….. [What actually is Aurora OS and who is using it? - #532 by grot\_is\_sailor - General - Sailfish OS Forum](https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/what-actually-is-aurora-os-and-who-is-using-it/2989/532) --- ## Post 18 by @tauiode — 2026-04-04T07:54:03Z Here’s a rutube video of someone installing an aarch64 version of the aurora OS demo’ build on to a QEMU supported VM. Looking closer you can see that ARM and X86\_64 versions are also available to download. > **[Kotlin Multiplatform и ОС Аврора на macOS (apple silicon).](https://rutube.ru/video/private/05428a1a33896c96d365899e1c3a0ebb/)** > > Сборка демонстрационного примера Aurora Interop ОС Аврора на macOS, apple silicon. --- ## Post 19 by @Encounter5729 — 2026-04-04T12:34:58Z Wrong thread --- ## Post 20 by @Encounter5729 — 2026-04-04T12:36:58Z Got it. To be fair, I didn’t think a real modern Internet could be achieved. But a lowkey, slow but working Internet could be achieved. I guess the better term is local intranets. Hopefully Meshtatic work on the max range, so cross-border ‘Internet smuggling’ becomes possible. --- ## Post 21 by @anon64387538 — 2026-04-04T14:05:51Z Maybe with Reticulum. [GitHub - markqvist/Sideband: LXMF client for Android, Linux and macOS allowing you to communicate with people or LXMF-compatible systems over Reticulum networks using LoRa, Packet Radio, WiFi, I2P, or anything else Reticulum supports. · GitHub](https://github.com/markqvist/Sideband) --- ## Post 22 by @Encounter5729 — 2026-04-04T20:55:07Z Looks really nice but I am wondering what hardware do you need --- ## Post 23 by @anon64387538 — 2026-04-04T22:14:03Z I am working on figuring that out with some friends. Also, @jonah was tinkering with this stuff a bit ago. --- ## Post 24 by @tauiode — 2026-04-05T11:02:09Z > [@tauiode](#): > > It’s native linux (no Android) although it most likely could run Waydroid in a container same as Sailfish can Turns out you can’t run android app’s on this Aurora OS. Sailfish OS provided the platform but the rest is all home grown it would seem. Apparently allowing android accessibility would compromise the security so the Russian government is offering bounty’s to FOSS developers to replicate the most popular android apps. It would appear that the Russian’s will perfect the linux phone long before we will. Someone really needs to get out there and steal one of these devices I’m thinking. :grin: --- ## Post 25 by @unfocused8 — 2026-05-03T16:31:30Z To fight censorship, you can not rely on a single tool. You will need Tor to access information such as news from other countries. Meshcore with is large scale permanent infrastructure is great of sharing information and organisating protest. Meshtastic has is benefits during protests. Which are required to put pressure on the ruling elite. Reticulum maybe can be the closest to a grassroot run internet alternative, however we are still lacking real-world experience on how it scales compared to meshtastic and meshcore. Also tools like Starlink had some success in places like Iran. --- ## Post 26 by @gasull — 2026-05-04T11:36:26Z > [@Encounter5729](#): > > Russian netizens have started using [Meshstatic](https://meshtastic.org/) Meshtastic has no encryption. They should use [Reticulum](https://reticulum.network/) instead, which has E2EE. --- ## Post 27 by @gasull — 2026-05-04T11:51:49Z > [@TheDoc](#): > > Next step could be criminalizing Meshtastic if its usage becomes too widespread, then I guess Russians would only be left with the Sneakernet. Cubans have had a [popular sneakernet system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Paquete_Semanal) for many years. --- ## Post 28 by @gasull — 2026-05-04T12:00:19Z > [@securitybrahh](#): > > Nymvpn? NymVPN is good for privacy, but not so good for bypassing Internet censorship. And it’s very hard to bypass whitelisting. --- ## Post 29 by @pg.user — 2026-05-04T17:01:07Z Whitelists and VPN bans are not the biggest problems. Not certified satellite terminals such as Starlink are soon to become illegal for import. Next coming government initiative is an establishment of “foreign” traffic limits and the raise of traffic prices up to 60USD for 1Gb. No VPN will help you with that. Sadly. --- ## Post 30 by @Encounter5729 — 2026-05-17T18:12:31Z Again, how is this related > [@gasull](#): > > Meshtastic has no encryption That’s just no true. For example, messages are encrypted by default. Not saying the encryption is perfect, but the claim made here is plain false. > **[Meshtastic Encryption | Meshtastic](https://meshtastic.org/docs/overview/encryption/)** > > Understand Meshtastic's encryption: optional network-wide AES256 security for off-grid communication, ensuring confidentiality against passive eavesdropping. --- ## Post 31 by @ignoramous — 2026-05-20T06:50:54Z > [@arise1984](#): > > Russia will be the next China GFW Russia is going many extra miles, here: [https://bidle.hashnode.dev/ah7d4h44-kitxtt4](https://bidle.hashnode.dev/ah7d4h44-kitxtt4) Not unexpected for a country that has long had world-class expertise in cybersecurity.