“A clear escalation in Russia’s crackdown on digital privacy tools” – experts warn against recent VPN disappearances in Russia
The VPN purge from Russian official app stores continues, with smaller providers becoming the new target after Apple and Google.
Between May 15 and 16, 2025, Samsung and Xiaomi both removed the AdGuard VPN application at the Roskomnadzor’s demand. At least one more VPN provider, HideMyName VPN, has also been removed from the Huawei Store in Russia and China – a Russian VPN digital rights group, VPN Guild, confirmed to TechRadar.
“The removal of VPN apps from app stores marks a clear escalation in Russia’s crackdown on digital privacy tools,” said VPN Guild Chair Alexey Kozliuk.
Not an isolated incident
The recent events, Kozliuk explains, aren’t isolated incidents, but part of a broader, ongoing campaign to block Russian citizens’ access to uncensored information and control internet use.
In October 2023, for example, HideMyName filed the first-ever lawsuit against the Kremlin’s infamous censorship body regulator Roskomnadzor. In January 2024, authorities deemed the VPN provider to be a “foreign agent.“
In March 2024, the government then passed a new law to criminalize the spread of information about ways to circumvent internet restrictions. This is likely the legal basis upon which the Russian censor body began issuing these removal demands to tech firms.
From July 2024 onwards, Apple has removed at least 60 VPN apps, including AdGuard VPN, a popular Russian service, and Amnezia VPN, alongside some of the best VPN services on the market. This brought the total toll to almost 100 VPN apps unavailable in Russia’s App Store.
While Google seems mostly resistant to these demands so far, recent data shows that at least 53 VPNs are also currently unavailable in the Google Play Store in Russia.
Now, authorities’ targets have also expanded towards smaller app store providers.
“We’re seeing a coordinated squeeze across platforms, limiting users’ ability to bypass restrictions,” said Kozliuk. “What’s especially concerning is the growing role of global tech companies in enforcing local censorship, whether under direct state pressure or as preemptive compliance.”
GreatFire’s Campaign and Advocacy Director, Benjamin Ismail, also shared the same concerns. Through the organization’s project AppCensorship, Ismail and the team have been busy monitoring a staggering increase in these VPN removals across both Apple and Google’s official app stores.
While it’s the first time Ismail has heard of such an incident involving Samsung’s Galaxy App Store, he told TechRadar that a way smaller provider (F-Droid) was also hit by a similar request in 2024.
According to Ismail, this may mean that Roskomnadzor has understood that it can try its luck to put pressure on tech vendors. “Smaller providers may struggle more to resist these demands as the prospect of becoming fully unavailable in Russia might be an issue for these platforms,” he added.
VPNs will remain a critical line of defense for digital freedom
Alexey Kozliuk, VPN Guild Chair
This is exactly why experts have long argued that Big Tech giants, which have the means and resources, should uphold their users’ human rights and challenge the Kremlin’s censorship requests.
Commenting on this point, Kozliuk from the VPN Guild said: “This underscores the urgent need to give users more control and make them less reliant on centralized platforms and app ecosystems, as well as the need for stronger international advocacy to hold tech platforms accountable.
“As political tensions rise, especially around elections or protests, these crackdowns will likely intensify – and VPNs will remain a critical line of defense for digital freedom.”
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The VPN purge from Russian official app stores continues, with smaller providers becoming the new target after Apple and Google. Between May 15 and 16, 2025, Samsung and Xiaomi both removed the AdGuard VPN application at the Roskomnadzor’s demand. At least one more VPN provider, HideMyName VPN, has also been…
