Major Russian banks and web platforms are being conscripted into a "witch-hunt" against internet users seeking to bypass online controls, according to a report by the advocacy group RKS Global. The investigation found that many popular apps are actively collecting data on people who use virtual private networks (VPNs) to access blocked websites.
The report analysed 30 widely used Russian apps, including those operated by T-Bank, Sberbank, Yandex and VKontakte. It found that 22 of them detect whether a user is connected to a VPN or has one installed, and most retain that information on servers where security services could access it. "The level of intrusion into the device can be very high," the report said.
Tens of millions of Russians use VPNs to reach global internet services, a figure that surged after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent bans on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. While VPN use is not formally illegal, authorities have increasingly criminalised activities around it, with courts now treating it as an aggravating circumstance in prosecutions.
Mazay Banzaev, founder of the open-source VPN company Amnezia, said: "It's one thing if Russian IT companies were to 'catch' users the moment they visit a site with a VPN enabled. It is quite another when even a closed application continues scanning the phone for VPN usage."
The report describes a shift from passive to active censorship, with mobile blackouts, the blocking of Telegram, and the promotion of a government-controlled "superapp" called Max. RKS Global warned that digital censorship in Russia was reaching a new level, leaving little of citizens' private lives beyond the reach of authorities.
