The blocking of VPNs in Russia is causing problems for IT developers
The Russian government’s decision to crack down on VPN traffic within the country has caused problems for local IT companies. The restrictions have complicated the software development process and hindered access to necessary tools.
Programmers began experiencing difficulties accessing open-source repositories, version control systems, libraries, and development environments with cloud components, several IT companies told Kommersant.
“In fact, this concerns the entire infrastructure that supports the modern development cycle and is closely integrated with global services,” noted Alexander Demin, Head of Administration and DevOps at the Softline Group of Companies.
At the same time, open-source solutions are the most widespread in the Russian IT industry. In particular, in the products of young vendors listed in the Ministry of Digital Development’s registry, the share of such solutions can reach 50–90%.
As market participants note, Russian developers previously faced blockages from foreign services, but now internal restrictions have been added to the mix. According to Maxim Kopov, IT Director at “KORUS Consulting,” the situation has become more complicated.
At the same time, Alexey Mironov, a leading specialist in the research and development department of the IT company “Stakhanovets,” noted that difficulties began to emerge in February–March 2026, when Roskomnadzor began actively restricting the operation of VPNs within the country.
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Amid attempts to block hostile information resources in Russia, a massive service outage occurred again on April 6, particularly affecting state-run Gosuslugi.
A similar outage occurred in Russia on April 3; telecom experts directly linked it to the operation of equipment designed to block unwanted resources. Founder Pavel Durov stated that the Russian authorities’ attempts to restrict VPN operations led to a large-scale failure in the national payment system.
