VPN in Russia: What Worked for 192 Travelers in 2026 and How to Get Ready Before You Fly

If you’re traveling to Russia and want to keep using WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram or YouTube, you’ll need a VPN, and it has to be installed and tested before you leave home: once you’re there, downloading one is a lottery. In October 2026 I asked readers who had just come back what had worked for them. 192 people replied and the result is very clear: Amnezia worked well for 28 of the 39 who took it, while Proton, the one most recommended online, only worked well for 9 out of 61.

But the brand isn’t everything. How you connect matters almost as much: hotel wifi, roaming with your own carrier, an eSIM or a Russian SIM give very different results with the same VPN installed. I’ll take you through it in order, using what readers went through and what’s said on the forums where Russians themselves help each other out.

This is step 8 of my guide to planning a trip to Russia in 10 steps, where you’ll find everything else in order.

If you want the full picture (how to get online, what works without a VPN and what to do when mobile data gets cut), start with my guide to internet in Russia.

✅ The essentials, in six points

1. Take two VPNs from different providers, installed and tested at home. My first choice is Amnezia.
2. Pick one with a stealth mode. The most advertised ones are the most blocked.
3. Russian services always work without a VPN: Yandex, banks, taxis and maps.
4. It fails more on the street than at the hotel. Mobile data gets cut; hotel wifi almost always holds up.
5. Turn on split tunneling so the VPN doesn’t break your Russian apps.
6. Download your maps for offline use. At some point you’ll be without data, VPN or not.

Try Amnezia

Start here: find your case

There are three different situations and the answer to one doesn’t work for the others. Find yours and go straight to that section.

Your situation	What happens to you	Go to
Tourist trip, a few days or a few weeks	You want your usual apps without any hassle	What to do before you leave
You’re staying a long time, or you have family or a partner there	You need something that holds up for months, plus access to your bank back home	Special cases
You’re outside Russia and Russian websites won’t load	Trains, museums, shops or government portals that never finish loading	From abroad, to open Russian sites

If you’re about to travel, you’ll actually need two of the three: the “from abroad” one now, to book from home, and the travel one before you get on the plane.

Which VPN worked in 2026: what 192 travelers told me

In the survey I asked every reader to tick, from a list of well-known VPNs, which ones they had taken and whether they worked well, on and off, or not at all. These are the results, adding up the answers in English, Spanish, Italian, French and German from trips made between spring and fall 2026:

VPN	Took it	Worked well	On and off	Didn’t work
Amnezia	39	28	7	4
AdGuard VPN	17	5	3	9
Proton VPN	61	9	9	43
NordVPN	30	1	4	25
Windscribe	9	0	2	7
Astrill	4	1	0	3

Put another way: Amnezia worked well for 7 in 10 readers; Proton for 1 in 7, and NordVPN for 1 in 30. The Windscribe and Astrill numbers are small because they were grouped together in the English form and I couldn’t separate them: take them as a rough guide.

📋 How to read this table

This is a reader survey, not a lab test. Quite a few people took Amnezia because I recommend it here, and people who get it right are keener to answer. Even so, the gap is too big to be chance, and it matches what Russians say on their own forums. And remember that in Russia what worked in May can stop working in July: that’s why I give dates.

One by one

Service	How it’s doing
Amnezia	Worked well for 28 of 39 readers. It’s the one Russians themselves use and the only one with an option built for the days when mobile data only lets Russian services through (it’s called “Greenland”, it’s on the paid plan and it only works while you’re inside the country). It was down for about six weeks in June and July 2026, came back stronger in August and held up while a new wave of blocks took down the big names. Javier, a Spanish reader, arrived in Saint Petersburg in September with Proton and Windscribe and neither worked; he switched to Amnezia and it “worked perfectly”. Flo, a New Zealander who travels there often, hadn’t needed a VPN on her previous trip; this time WhatsApp and Instagram wouldn’t open until she signed up for it. Its website doesn’t load from Russia: pay before you go.
AdGuard VPN	Worked well for 5 of 17. The best example that there are no absolute answers here: it worked very well for Alfio in August 2026 and was the only one that gave him an IP in his own country; for Marco, the same month, it was no use even on the paid plan. Fransje, who lives in the Altai, switches between it and two others and is happy with it.
Proton VPN	Worked well for 9 of 61, and didn’t work for 43. It’s the most recommended one online and the one that fails most on the ground in 2026. Only the odd reader kept it stable with Stealth mode, and the Russians Javier was staying with told him straight out that everyone knows Proton doesn’t work there. It’s still a good option for the opposite case: opening Russian websites from home.
NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, PureVPN	NordVPN: 1 in 30. These are the ones that dominate comparison sites and that have been officially blocked for years. They work erratically: with ExpressVPN, one Italian reader always got through using the Lightway TCP protocol while it was no use for others; one traveler had Surfshark and PureVPN both drop at the same time mid-trip. I wouldn’t make any of them your first choice.
Astrill	Few answers: 1 worked well and 3 didn’t. Mathieu came back from Barnaul in September 2026 saying it had “saved his life”: he downloaded it once he was already there and got by for four days on the free trial. Another French reader says it only worked with the StealthVPN protocol and after writing to support. It’s expensive.
Windscribe	None of the 9 readers who ticked it said it worked well. Its free plan is a safety net, not your main option.
Mullvad	It wasn’t on the list, but several readers mentioned it: it nearly always works on hotel wifi and is patchier on mobile data. Fixed price and strong privacy, a little less beginner-friendly.
Sota, Red Shield, BlancVPN	Names nobody knows outside Russia, used by foreign residents. Several Italian readers describe Red Shield as cheap and stable if you leave it on all the time; Víctor says BlancVPN works very well because “they adapt to the changes”. The catch with some of them is that they’re hard to pay for from abroad.
Unknown free VPNs	Not as your main option. Many have no stealth mode and quite a few make money by reselling your traffic. Russian circles regularly warn about fake apps that steal data.

The others readers mentioned

Beyond the list, readers wrote in more than fifty names. Almost all of them are Russian VPNs or ones made for Russian users, which you download from the app stores, work for a few weeks and then disappear. The ones that came up most:

• JumpJump, TipTop, Speed Top, Ping and Turbo VPN: free or nearly free, with ads. For most people they worked on and off, switching servers. TipTop makes you renew every 24 hours by watching an ad.
• ZoogVPN: used by several Italian and Spanish readers, one of them without a single failure.
• Browsec: free. For one reader who did the Trans-Siberian it was the only one that worked.

I haven’t tried any of these myself and I wouldn’t make them your first choice, but as a third option, in case the other two go down, they can get you out of a jam.

Happ and Telegram keys: what people who live there use

Several readers who live in Russia or have a Russian partner use a different system. They install an “empty” app such as Happ, V2Box or Hiddify and paste in a key (a long link) bought from a Telegram bot for 100 to 300 rubles a month, around $1 to $3. One of them has been using it this way for over a year without problems. It works because these keys use newer protocols that are hard to detect, and when a server goes down the seller sends you a new key.

For a tourist it has two drawbacks: you nearly always pay with a Russian card, and you’re buying from a stranger on Telegram. If someone you trust there sets it up for you, it’s a good option. If not, Amnezia uses similar protocols and you can pay for it from home. I explain how Happ works, how to install the real app and how to avoid the fake bots in Happ VPN in Russia.

My recommendation

Whatever the brand, stick to the criteria, because they don’t go out of date: it should have a stealth mode (it shows up in the settings as “Stealth”, “Obfuscated” or “anti-censorship”), you should take two from different providers, and it should have servers in your own country if you’ll need to log in to your bank.

With that in mind, if you want me to keep it simple: start with Amnezia, which was born inside the Russian world for this exact problem and holds up best on mobile data, and add a second one from another provider, whichever you like. I explain how to get Amnezia ready in ten minutes in Amnezia VPN for Russia. If your usual VPN has stopped working, they give you a discount for switching and you can ask for a trial key before you pay.

And one honest warning about that second one: if you need an IP in your own country for your bank, look at the country list first. Amnezia added a batch of new countries in September 2026 and now has 39, but make sure yours is on it before you pay.

Try Amnezia

What to do before you leave home

Here’s the list. Twenty minutes of work that save your trip.

1. Install two VPNs from different providers and test them at home. Downloading them isn’t enough: connect, check they start and note where you change server. My suggestion: Amnezia as the first and any other with a stealth mode as the second.
2. Pay for the subscriptions before you go. From Russia the VPN websites don’t load and foreign cards don’t work.
3. Keep your keys somewhere other than your phone. Email yourself the configuration files or QR codes. If your phone breaks there, without them you’re left with no VPN.
4. Ask your carrier whether it has data roaming in Russia and how much it costs. If it does, it’s the first thing to try when you land.
5. Take an eSIM as well, installed, and activate it when you land.
6. Download Yandex Maps and Yandex Translate for offline use, with each city’s map and Russian. It’s the tip readers repeat most. Pablo puts it plainly: “having downloaded the Moscow map saved me, otherwise I’d have been walking around blind”.
7. Take screenshots of the key routes: airport to hotel, hotel to station.
8. Email the hotel and ask for the wifi password.
9. Agree on a plan with your family. Let them know you might disappear for a few hours without anything being wrong, and get an alternative to WhatsApp such as IMO installed on both ends. I explain it in Does WhatsApp work in Russia?
10. Write down the essentials on paper: the hotel address in Russian, your local contact’s phone number and your booking number.

Planning the whole trip, not just this bit?

Everything in one place: visas, borders, paying for things, trains, apps and what to do when one of them stops working, plus day-by-day itineraries for Moscow and Saint Petersburg. I update it every time something changes in Russia.

Read it on your phone or your laptop: PDF, ePub and online version. One payment, future updates included.

See what’s inside

What’s going on, in two minutes

You don’t need to understand anything technical, but you do need these three ideas, because they explain 90% of what’s going to happen to you there.

1. The filter doesn’t look at what you send, it looks at its shape

Russia has installed a system across every operator’s network, fixed and mobile, that inspects the traffic going through. It doesn’t open the envelope: it looks at the shape of the envelope. And if that shape resembles a VPN, it cuts the connection, even if what you were opening isn’t banned at all.

That’s why the most heavily advertised VPNs are precisely the ones that work worst there: their “envelope” is recognizable at a glance. The ones that hold up are the ones that manage to make their traffic look like ordinary browsing. In the apps this is called camouflage mode, and in the settings it usually shows up as “Stealth”, “Obfuscated” or “anti-censorship”. If your VPN doesn’t have it, don’t waste your time.

2. On mobile there’s a second layer, and hardly anyone gets past it

On top of the filtering, in many regions mobile internet is switched off outright, or only a list of approved Russian services is left working: banks, government portals, Yandex, the big online stores. Everything else, foreign or simply off the list, stops existing for those hours. And nothing gets through then, with or without a VPN, because the block happens at the operator before your connection ever leaves the country.

Francisco, a reader who lives in Kazan, described it perfectly in September 2026: “The problem is that out on the street the internet does NOT work; you can only reach banks and government bodies. No Google or Microsoft app works. I recommend Yandex Maps Navigator because that one does manage to get online in the street”.

Important: this only affects mobile internet. Hotel wifi and wired connections take a different route and hold up far better.

📊 How routine this actually is

The Russian project Monitor Runet publishes a daily count of how many regions have had mobile internet outages. Lately the figure has been running between 51 and 61 regions a day, and in all of them the approved-service lists are applied at the same time. In total, 77 of Russia’s 89 regions have had those lists switched on at some point. This isn’t an occasional hiccup: it’s the normal state of Russian mobile internet.

3. Russian services always work

This is the good news and the most reassuring part: to get around, pay, order a taxi, translate a menu or find a restaurant, you don’t need a VPN. Russian services always work, even on the bad days. What needs help is everything else.

🚦 What needs a VPN and what doesn’t

Needs a VPN: WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, Signal, Discord, FaceTime and the international press.

Works without a VPN: all of Yandex (maps, taxi, translator, search), Russian banks, government portals, Ozon, Wildberries, Avito and the state messenger Max.

Two caveats. “Blocked” rarely means blocked completely: very often it means it works on and off, depending on the network and the region. Several readers could use WhatsApp for text only, with no photos and no calls. And if what worries you is talking to your family, don’t stake everything on the VPN: there are alternatives that still get through and I go through them in how to make video calls with Russia.

4. Will they charge you for using a VPN?

You may have read that from May 1, 2026, Russian carriers would charge 150 rubles for every gigabyte of international traffic above 15 GB a month, an indirect way of making VPNs more expensive. It hasn’t happened: the measure was pushed back first to June and then to after the September elections, and as of October 2026 it still isn’t in force. The latest version being discussed is different, with a 50 GB threshold and only on 5G networks.

Either way, it would apply to customers of Russian carriers. If you travel with a foreign eSIM on roaming, you pay whatever your plan says, VPN or not. If this changes, I’ll update it here.

The first thing isn’t the VPN: it’s how you connect

This is the section that genuinely changes your trip, so if you only read one part of this article, read this one.

The tower is always Russian. What changes is where you reach the internet

Let’s clear up a very common misunderstanding first. In Russia your phone always latches onto a Russian tower: Beeline, MTS, MegaFon or Tele2. There are no others. It makes no difference whether you’re carrying a travel eSIM, your usual SIM from home or a Russian one: they provide the coverage and there’s nothing you can do about that.

What does change, and it decides everything, is where your connection reaches the internet after passing through that tower. There are two possibilities:

• It goes out through the Russian network. Then you’re browsing the Russian internet, with the same filters and the same lists as someone living in Moscow.
• It goes out through your home operator. The Russian tower simply carries your connection back to your own carrier’s network, and that’s what puts you on the internet. You browse as if you were at home.

Your provider decides that, not you, and it isn’t written anywhere when you buy. That’s why there are so many contradictory accounts floating around online. And since July 2026 Russia also filters roaming traffic, so the first case is becoming more and more common.

Your three options, best to worst

1. Your own SIM from home, on roaming. This is the one that most often goes out through the home operator, and therefore the one giving the best results. EARL, a reader from Manchester, said that in April 2026 his British SIM had absolutely everything working: VK, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Telegram. Another reader from the US explained it without knowing why it worked: “this actually bypasses the VPN entirely, because however it works, it routes through US networks”. The downsides are the price if your plan doesn’t include Russia, and the fact that not every carrier still offers roaming there. Ask before you travel.

2. A travel eSIM. It works the same way as roaming, because it’s also a foreign SIM using Russian towers, but every provider sets it up its own way and that’s where the lottery comes in. The survey has a bit of everything, even with the same provider and the same summer:

“The eSIM worked flawlessly. A VPN was not required. WhatsApp and Telegram worked, including voice calls, without a VPN.”
Thomas, German, Saint Petersburg, August 2026

“I bought the eSIM before leaving. It was supposed to work in Russia according to the seller and according to everything I had read. Well, no: at no point was it possible to connect that way.”
Jean-Marc, Swiss, four weeks between Saint Petersburg and Moscow, July and August 2026

It isn’t bad luck: one person’s connection went out through their home carrier and the other’s through the Russian network. And during 2026 the second has become more common. A tip several readers repeat: if the eSIM loses data, go to your phone’s network settings, turn off automatic selection and pick the carrier by hand; Beeline is usually the best. I cover which eSIMs worked best in the best eSIMs for Russia.

3. A Russian SIM. Here there’s no doubt at all: you go out through the Russian network, with every restriction, and you’re the first to be left with nothing on approved-list days. In exchange it’s the one that works best for anything local and the only one that lets you connect to public wifi. It’s also hard to get as a foreigner, although some readers have managed it with their passport in an operator’s shop. I explain it in how to buy a Russian SIM card.

And above all three, one that never lets you down: hotel wifi. It’s where everything holds up best, without exception. Save the banking, the photo uploads, the long video calls and any important paperwork for the hotel.

The practical conclusion is simple: always try roaming first, because when it works you need nothing else, but don’t travel without a plan B. Take the VPN installed even if you think you won’t use it.

You won’t have data for the first few hours, and it isn’t your fault

This is the most common scare and it has nothing to do with the VPN. When a SIM connects to the Russian network for the first time arriving from abroad, mobile data and SMS are blocked for 24 hours. It’s a security measure and it applies to everyone. Voice calls keep working.

You can unlock it sooner. Many readers get a text with a link to a small verification puzzle; solve it and you have data within minutes (the link can be opened on another phone). Be careful, because the block starts again if you change carrier or region, which happens a lot when you travel by train. I go through it step by step in how to remove the internet block when you arrive in Russia.

And public wifi is not an alternative

The open networks in airports, the metro and cafes ask for a Russian phone number to verify you by text or by a call. With a foreign SIM, those networks don’t exist for you, unless a friendly waiter lends you their number, which has happened to several readers. Pablo, in Moscow in August 2026, managed to get connected just once in two days. That’s why the wifi that matters is the hotel’s.

You’re there already: before you blame the VPN

Very often the problem isn’t your VPN: it’s that at that moment and on that network there’s nothing to be done. Before you spend half an hour fighting the settings, turn the VPN off and open two pages in your browser.

yandex.ru	google.com	What’s going on	What to do
Loads	Loads	Your connection goes out through your home operator	You’ll barely need the VPN. Best case scenario
Loads	Doesn’t load	You’re on the Russian internet, with selective blocks	Turn the VPN on
Loads	Doesn’t load, and nor does any other foreign site	Only approved Russian services are getting through	Don’t push it. Use Yandex and wait for the hotel wifi
Doesn’t load	Doesn’t load	Mobile data blackout in the area	Offline mode: downloaded maps, cash and paper
Nothing loads, not even at the hotel	Doesn’t load	Sometimes half the Russian internet goes down at once	Wait it out. It happened in August 2026 and even Russian shops and banks were offline

And there’s one rule that always holds: the VPN holds up far better on hotel wifi than on mobile data. If something doesn’t work on the street, try again in the evening before giving up on it. After a drone alert, mobile internet can take several hours to come back.

Russian apps and your VPN: how to avoid switching it on and off

With the VPN on you look like a foreigner connecting from outside, and that breaks precisely what you need most there: the Yandex taxi, the Russian card, the banking and the government portals. Without it you have no messaging. Igor summed it up in June 2026: “you have to keep switching it on and off constantly”.

If your VPN allows it, there’s a way around this. The answer is called split tunneling and it’s in the settings of almost every VPN app. It takes two minutes to set up:

1. In your VPN’s settings look for “Split tunneling”, “Bypass VPN” or “Excluded apps”.
2. Choose exclusion mode: everything goes through the VPN except what you specify.
3. Add your banking app, Yandex Go, Yandex Maps and your Russian card’s app if you have one.
4. Connect and forget about it. The VPN stays on all day without breaking anything.

It’s what Danilo does, an Italian who lives in Moscow with his family, using Red Shield, which a Russian friend recommended to him: he left the VPN on permanently and excluded his banking and his own country’s government portals, which used to be “almost impossible to open”.

If your VPN doesn’t have split tunneling, some people solve it the blunt way: two phones, one with the Russian SIM for Russian apps and another with the eSIM and the VPN for everything else.

When no VPN will do: plan B

It’ll happen on some day of your trip, so you may as well have thought it through. Stefano was left twelve hours without a connection in Saint Petersburg and Fran had entire days with no data and no GPS. When it happens:

• Fall back on your downloaded maps. That’s why it’s the tip readers repeat most.
• Expect the GPS to fail too. In central Moscow and Saint Petersburg the map puts you where you aren’t and the taxi can’t find you. No VPN fixes that: plan the route before you leave the hotel.
• Around the Kremlin and Red Square, foreign SIMs lose signal. Several readers mention it: it comes back about 800 meters away.
• Carry cash. Without data there are no app taxis and no phone payments.
• Send your “I’m fine” when you have wifi, not when you remember.
• Ordinary phone calls usually keep working even when there’s no data.

Three special cases

You’re going to live there or stay for a long stretch

If you’re staying for months, commercial apps will give you trouble sooner or later, because the blocks arrive in waves. The option for people who take this seriously is to set up your own server, and that’s what several readers do:

• Amnezia on a rented server outside Russia, for $3 to $6 a month. The Amnezia app installs it almost by itself: I walk you through it step by step, with screenshots, in how to set up your own VPN with Amnezia. One reader uses two protocols: one on wifi and another on mobile data, because they don’t all hold up the same.
• A server at home, on a Raspberry Pi or an old computer. Home internet addresses are rarely blocked, and one reader does it for free with Tailscale and his network drive.

Two warnings from this year. First, personal servers are having their addresses blocked, and when that happens it stops working for everybody at once, so it’s worth having a second option paid up while you sort it out. Second, if you’re thinking of setting it up on your home router, check first that your model supports the latest version of the system: manufacturers often take months to catch up and you can end up stuck on an old version, which is exactly the one being blocked.

You need an IP in your own country for your bank or government services

“A VPN” is not the same thing as “a VPN with servers in your country”. To get into your bank or your tax office from Russia you need to come out from an IP in your own country, not a Swiss or Finnish one. Alfio ran into this in August 2026: the one that held up best for him had no servers in Italy and he had to pay for another just for that. Before you pay for anything, look at the country list and check yours is there.

You’re outside Russia and Russian sites won’t open

This is the opposite problem and a lot of people don’t know it exists until they run into it. You try to get onto the Russian railways site, the Bolshoi Theatre, a government portal or a shop like Ozon, and the page just sits there loading. It isn’t your computer or your provider: those sites are refusing connections that arrive from abroad.

Here you don’t need to “get out” of Russia, you need to “get in”: a Russian IP. This is how you fix it:

1. You only want to check timetables or prices: a free browser extension with a server in Russia will do. Pick one with plenty of downloads and good reviews, use it only for that and switch it off when you’re done. Don’t log in to anything and don’t enter personal details while it’s on: there are plenty of fake extensions out there making their living reselling your traffic.
2. If Russia isn’t on the country list, try Kazakhstan. Many Russian sites accept connections from the neighboring country and almost every provider has that server.
3. You’re going to register or do something that matters: then it’s worth paying. Proton VPN keeps servers in Russia on its paid plan, and Amnezia also offers a Russian location, so a single subscription covers both directions if you’re traveling as well.

One warning so you don’t get your hopes up: the VPN opens the site, but it doesn’t let you pay. Almost all of those pages only take Russian Mir cards, and no IP fixes that. For trains there are alternatives that do accept a foreign card: I go through them in how to buy train tickets in Russia.

Is it legal to use a VPN in Russia?

Yes. Using one as a private individual is not penalized: the law places obligations on the companies providing the service, not on the person using it, which is why so many end up blocked. The fines you may have heard about are for advertising ways to get around the blocks, which affects media outlets and content creators, not a tourist.

And there’s a solid reason why they aren’t banned outright: Russian companies themselves depend on them. A bank whose staff work from home reaches its internal systems over a VPN. A retail chain connects its stores to head office the same way. A company with a branch abroad needs its two offices to see each other. It’s the same technology whether it’s used for work or for opening Instagram, and banning it across the board would bring half the country’s economy to a halt. That’s why members of parliament repeat, every time they’re asked, that there are no plans to make them illegal.

That said, three things worth knowing:

• There is a fine for deliberately searching for content designated “extremist”, including through a VPN. For a normal trip it’s beside the point, but it exists.
• The surcharge on international mobile traffic I mentioned above still isn’t in force, and a tourist would be unlikely to notice it anyway, least of all if you favor the hotel wifi.
• At the border they may check your phone: they look at your contacts, your photos, your messages and the apps you have installed. Quite a few readers have reported it this year, and some have preferred to uninstall things before crossing. It isn’t systematic, but it’s worth knowing before you arrive. More detail in the guide to planning your trip to Russia.

The mistakes people make most

• Leaving it for the airport. Inside Russia, downloading or paying for a VPN is down to luck.
• Taking only one. When it goes down, you’re left with nothing and no way to install another.
• Choosing by reputation. The most advertised VPNs are the most blocked.
• Assuming roaming will solve it. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t, and you won’t know until you land.
• Insisting when there’s nothing to be done. Do the 30-second test before changing server twenty times.
• Trusting everything to your phone. Without downloaded maps, addresses on paper and cash, an outage leaves you stranded.

Frequently asked questions

Which VPN works best in Russia?

In the October 2026 survey of 192 readers, Amnezia worked well for 28 of the 39 who took it. Proton worked well for 9 of 61 and NordVPN for 1 of 30. Always take a second VPN from another provider.

Do I really need a VPN to travel to Russia?

If you want to use WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram or YouTube, yes. To get around, pay and eat you don’t: Russian services always work without one. Some readers on roaming with their own carrier could use everything without a VPN, but you can’t count on that in advance.

Does Proton VPN work in Russia?

Less and less. In the October 2026 survey it worked well for 9 of the 61 readers who took it and didn’t work for 43. It’s still useful for the opposite: opening Russian websites from home, because it keeps servers in Russia on its paid plan.

Does NordVPN work in Russia?

Very little. In the October 2026 survey it worked well for 1 of the 30 readers who took it. It has been officially blocked for years and its apps aren’t in the Russian app stores.

Can I install the VPN once I’m in Russia?

Don’t count on it. VPN websites are blocked, their apps have disappeared from the Russian app stores and foreign cards can’t pay for them there. Install, pay for and test them before you leave home.

What is Happ and is it any good for a tourist?

It’s an app you paste a key into, sold by Telegram bots for 100 to 300 rubles a month. Many residents use it and it works well, but you usually pay with a Russian card and you’re buying from a stranger. For a short trip it’s simpler to take a VPN you can pay for from home.

Is it illegal to use a VPN in Russia?

No. Using one as a private individual isn’t penalized. The law puts obligations on the companies providing the service, not on the user, and the existing fines are for advertising tools to get around the blocks.

Why does my VPN work at the hotel but not on the street?

Because filtering is much harsher on mobile networks than on fixed connections. And if that day only Russian services are allowed, nothing that isn’t Russian gets through on mobile data, with or without a VPN.

If I have roaming, do I still need a VPN?

Take one anyway. Your connection may go out to the internet through your home carrier, and then everything works without a VPN, or through the Russian network, and then you have the same restrictions as a local. You won’t know until you land.

How many VPNs should I take?

Two, from different providers, installed and tested before you travel. It’s the advice repeated both by Russian users and by readers whose trips went well.