Russians Are Abandoning Online Shopping as the Kremlin’s War on VPNs Backfires

The Russian government’s crackdown on VPN services is beginning to hurt the country’s economy. Online retailers are reporting declining traffic and lost sales as shoppers struggle to navigate an increasingly restricted digital environment.

In April, government agencies, banks, and major online retailers began blocking VPN users from accessing their websites, following instructions issued by Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications regulator.

The move coincided with a 10% drop in web traffic to Wildberries, Russia’s equivalent of Amazon, according to data from Digital Budget, a Moscow-based consultancy that tracks online user behavior.

“As market participants note, many users do not disable their VPNs to access a website and simply lose interest in making a purchase if they cannot open a product page,” Digital Budget said in a post on Telegram.

When navigation apps stopped working in Moscow in March, delivery drivers working for Flowwow, an online marketplace for flowers and gifts, had to rely on merchants’ Wi-Fi networks to download routes to customers’ addresses, according to the company’s logistics chief, Yuri Semichastnov.

As public frustration has grown, the Kremlin has softened its rhetoric in recent weeks, assuring citizens that mobile internet shutdowns are only temporary. Russian media reported in May that a proposal to charge users extra for consuming more than 15 gigabytes of foreign internet traffic per month had been postponed. The measure, which was reportedly aimed at VPN users, is now expected to be considered after the elections.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also instructed the government and the FSB to work together to ensure that critical services, including healthcare platforms and online payment systems, continue operating without disruption.

At the same time, VPN services are becoming increasingly important for Russians who want to keep access to Western apps and online platforms. By routing internet traffic through servers located outside Russia, VPNs allow users to bypass many of the country’s growing online restrictions.

Demand for these tools continues to surge. In March alone, the five most popular VPN services recorded 9.2 million downloads through the Google Play Store. According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, citing data from Moscow-based consultancy Digital Budget, that figure was 14 times higher than during the same month a year earlier.

“We have never seen this level of usage before,” Sarkis Darbinyan, a Russian internet freedom activist living in Lisbon, told Reuters.

Russian authorities have designated Darbinyan a “foreign agent,” a label commonly applied to individuals the government considers involved in anti-Russian activities.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly argued that tighter internet controls are necessary because Russia is engaged in what officials describe as an existential confrontation with the West over Ukraine. However, in April, Putin urged officials to take a more balanced approach, telling lawmakers that it would be “counterproductive” to focus solely on bans and restrictions.