Russia Plans $2/GB International Fees, Tighter VPN Controls

Russian officials are preparing a package of measures that would charge mobile users about $2 per gigabyte for internet traffic classified as international. Ukrainian intelligence says nearly all VPN activity would be treated as international because VPNs route traffic through foreign servers. Phone companies have asked regulators to delay implementation until at least Sept. 1.

The proposal would raise fees and change licensing for internet service providers. Current licensing for a small operator is about $134. Under the new rules a basic license would cost roughly $66,000 and a general license more than $1.3 million. Regulators would reduce license categories from 17 to three. Ukrainian analysts estimate more than 90 percent of Russia’s roughly 4,200 smaller operators could close or be acquired if the higher fees take effect.

Officials would accelerate the rollout of SORM, the system that gives the Federal Security Service direct access to user communications. The expansion would provide security services with streamlined access to online traffic and metadata for monitoring and interception.

Researchers at RKS Global examined 30 popular Russian Android apps, including banking and social platforms, and found 22 check whether a device is using a VPN or has one installed. Much of that information is retained on company servers where security services can access it. RKS Global’s report warned: “Any Android app released by Russian companies for the Russian market may now be spying.”

Mazay Banzaev, founder of the open-source VPN provider Amnezia, warned that apps can scan phones continuously for VPN use and not only when a user visits a site with a VPN enabled. Alexei Kozlyuk of the VPN Guild association estimated about 60 million Russians know how to use VPNs. Sergei Boyarsky, who heads the State Duma’s Information Policy Committee, cautioned: “If you live with a VPN switched on, you can access corners of the internet that are best avoided.”

Major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X have been largely inaccessible in Russia since 2022. Telegram was blocked on April 10, and millions of users turned to VPNs to keep accessing the messenger. Ukrainian and independent counts place the number of blocked websites in Russia at about 4.7 million. A 2025 survey by the Institute of Social Marketing found 46 percent of respondents had used a VPN at least once; some estimates put VPN use in Russia near 37.6 percent of internet users.

Ukrainian intelligence described the combined pricing, licensing and surveillance measures as a coordinated effort to make VPN use prohibitively expensive for ordinary users and to consolidate internet access among a few large, government-aligned companies.