Russia drops plan to charge users for international internet traffic and VPN use

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Russia’s Digital Development Ministry confirmed it has completely dropped its plan to charge users for international internet traffic.

The proposal initially aimed to charge users roughly 150 rubles per extra gigabyte after a 15GB monthly allowance.

Demand for censorship circumvention tools remains at an all-time high as the Kremlin continues its broader crackdown on digital privacy.

Internet users in Russia can breathe a sigh of relief as the government has abandoned its controversial plan to tax international mobile traffic.

The proposal, which heavily targeted those using the best VPN services to bypass state censorship, would have forced residents to pay steep premiums to access a free and open internet.

The policy reversal was confirmed during a recent State Duma session by Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Ivan Lebedev.

Responding to parliamentary questions about the initiative from Communist Party lawmaker Oleg Smolin, Lebedev categorically stated: “Fees for foreign traffic are not being considered”, according to reports from Meduza.io.

First introduced during a late March meeting between Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev and domestic telecom operators, the plan aimed to hit privacy-conscious users' wallets.

Because Russian carriers inherently classify VPN data routing as international traffic, the government intended to implement a strict 15-gigabyte monthly cap. According to initial reports from the BBC’s Russian service, authorities intended to charge users roughly 150 rubles for every additional gigabyte consumed beyond that limit.

The sudden U-turn comes after months of ongoing logistical hurdles and industry pushback. The tax was initially scheduled to take effect on May 1, but was subsequently postponed to June 1 after the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported that carriers were not ready to configure their billing systems.

The deadline was later pushed again to "closer to fall" or after the September elections, before finally being scrapped altogether.

As previously reported by TechRadar, an inside source confirmed that Russia's internet regulator, Roskomnadzor, lacks the technical abilities to effectively prevent residents from using VPNs at scale.

A temporary victory in a wider digital crackdown

(Image credit: Shutterstock) While the scrapped tax is a definitive win for privacy advocates, it remains just one battle in an increasingly hostile digital war.

Russian demand for circumvention tools has surged dramatically following the state-ordered blocking of major global platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram.

Without a VPN, everyday citizens are largely cut off from independent news sources and international social networks.

Rather than relying purely on financial deterrents, the Kremlin has steadily escalated its technical and legislative attacks to plug the gaps.

By mid-April, authorities successfully pressured major domestic internet platforms to comply with new regulations, actively restricting users from accessing their sites and apps while a VPN was enabled.

Cybersecurity experts have also repeatedly warned of more drastic state-led interventions aimed at entirely isolating the country's internet infrastructure from the rest of the world.

For now, millions of citizens continue to rely on robust privacy tools to navigate the web safely and maintain digital contact with the outside world. If you find yourself dealing with this restrictive landscape, learning exactly how to survive Russia's VPN crackdown is more crucial than ever.