The State Duma explained the rules for using VPN services in Russia

Russians will be able to freely use VPN services for any legitimate purposes. This was announced on July 16 by Anton Gorelkin, Deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy.

"Citizens will be free to use VPNs for any legitimate purpose. But if someone wants to commit a crime using such services, this will be considered an aggravating circumstance," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

According to Gorelkin, there are no plans to introduce a ban on using VPN services for professional and personal fair use. He added that fines are being imposed for VPN advertising, which was banned back in the spring of 2024.

Forbidden entry: how the search for extremist materials on the Web will be detected

There will be no mass monitoring of Internet user requests, the State Duma assured

Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on information policy and federal coordinator of the Digital Russia party project, said on the same day that Russians would not be held accountable for using VPN services if they use them to protect data. He also noted that fines will be imposed if the user intentionally tries to gain access to obviously extremist materials. At the same time, this bill will not apply to journalists, students and teachers.