voidly

Internet censorship in Russia

Russia (RU) · · Atom

37
Censorship Score
Level
high
Risk Tier
T2High
Trend
↑ worsening
Global Rank
#4
Incidents
55

Overview

Russia has expanded internet censorship significantly since 2022. VPN services are targeted, and deep packet inspection is deployed.

Evidence provenance
10 records from 3 sources
  • OONI1 (10%)
    Active web/messaging probes
  • IODA8 (80%)
    ASN-level outage signals + BGP
  • CensoredPlanet1 (10%)
    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 AI

Machine 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...

Multi-horizon shutdown forecast — Russia

monotonic ok
Next 1 day
22.1%
Next 7 days
48.7%
Next 30 days
70.0%

Honest scope: this is a current-regime risk signal, not a shutdown-onset predictor. It reliably flags countries already in a sustained blocking regime; on the days a new shutdown actually begins its skill is at/below chance (transition-row AUC ~0.33). Why →

ML Intelligence

Atlas models · 2026-05-21

Composite signals from Voidly Atlas's ML model suite — censorship intensity, contagion follow-risk, expected shutdown duration and behavioral peers. Model changelog →

Voidly Score
16.0/ 100
▲ 1.38 vs yesterday
How this is computed →
Expected shutdown duration
~5days
If a critical shutdown occurs · IQR ±2d
Evidence grade mix (55)
A: 35B: 19F: 1
Grading rubric →
Try-first circumvention tool
Generic commercial VPN bootstrap · commercial-vpn-aggregate · 87% probe success (works)
Full evasion table →
Behaviorally similar countries
CN80%KZ75%BY74%

Similarity is behavioral (how a country blocks), not political.

Recent Incidents

10 active
Confirmed: internet outage in Russia
May 15
29% anomaly · 18 measurements
Confirmed: internet outage in Russia
May 3
65% anomaly · 72 measurements
Internet outage in Russia
May 1
77% anomaly · 1 measurements
Sustained censorship in Russia (2026-05)
May 1
50% anomaly · 3 measurements
Internet outage in Russia
Apr 29
6% anomaly · 2 measurements
View all 55 incidents →

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 updated2026-05-23
API endpoint/data/country/RU

Protocol breakdown

929K
Web
101K
Telegram
105K
WhatsApp

Frequently asked questions about censorship in Russia

Q01

Is the internet censored in Russia?

+
Voidly classifies Russia as high (censorship score 37/100, risk tier 2: High). Russia has expanded internet censorship significantly since 2022. VPN services are targeted, and deep packet inspection is deployed.
Q02

What 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.
Q03

How does Russia's censorship compare globally?

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Russia ranks #4 on the Voidly Global Censorship Index. The current trend is worsening — block rates trending up.
Q04

What 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.
Q05

How 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 2026-05-23.
Q06

How 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.
Q07

Can 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.
Q08

How 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.

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