Overview
- Tagansky District Court found Google guilty of failing to remove information required by Russian law, citing six instances of VPN promotion on Google Play reported by TASS.
- Google had no representatives at the hearing as Roskomnadzor presented evidence that the company ignored prior takedown orders related to VPN ads.
- The penalty reinforces a wider crackdown that recently included nationwide bans on WhatsApp and Telegram and December’s blocking of Roblox.
- Earlier enforcement steps included blocking about 1.5 million Cloudflare IP addresses in 2025, causing widespread internet outages in eastern Russia.
- Authorities are expanding technical measures, with reports of a 2.27 billion–ruble AI-driven system designed to detect and block VPN protocols.