Overview
- A federal decree requires all smartphones sold in Russia from September to ship with the state-sanctioned MAX messaging app preinstalled and obliges government services to operate through it.
- A new law makes online searches for broadly defined “extremist” materials a criminal offense, exposing users to fines or imprisonment for accessing a wide range of content.
- Roskomnadzor continues to block or degrade major Western platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and routinely disrupt VPN services to steer traffic toward domestic alternatives.
- Regulators have raised ISP licensing fees dramatically and centralized IP address management with a handful of state-aligned providers, consolidating the nation’s internet infrastructure.
- These measures push Russia closer to a self-contained network that can be switched off from the global web at the Kremlin’s discretion.