A look at the rise of VPNs in Russia following its war in Ukraine; Apptopia: daily downloads of the top ten VPNs jumped from 15K before the war to 475K in March
A surge in virtual private network downloads is a challenge to Vladimir Putin and his version of the war Tweets: @alfonslopeztena , @kenroth , and @kenroth Tweets: @alfonslopeztena : Millions of Russians are tearing holes in Putin's Digital Iron Curtain — Since war began, VPNs have been downloaded in Russia by the hundreds of thousands a day, granting access to blocked material. Putin's attempt to seal Russians off from the world fails https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Kenneth Roth / @kenroth : “Daily downloads in Russia of the 10 most popular VPNs jumped from below 15,000 just before the war to as many as 475,000 in March. As of this week, downloads were continuing at a rate of nearly 300,000 a day.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... Kenneth Roth / @kenroth : “Since the war began in February, VPNs have been downloaded in Russia by the hundreds of thousands a day — a massive surge in demand that represents a direct challenge to President Vladimir Putin's attempt to seal Russians off from the wider world.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the Kremlin moved to seal off its information space — what critics dubbed a Digital Iron Curtain — blocking independent news and foreign platforms. Apptopia's download data shows how badly that seal leaked: daily installs of the top ten VPNs went from under 15,000 pre-war to as many as 475,000 in March.
The surge turned VPNs from niche privacy tools into mass-market infrastructure almost overnight, and set up an arms race documented across subsequent coverage: Washington boosting funding for circumvention tools, Moscow quietly buying VPN tech of its own, and providers like Proton getting blocked outright.
First-order effects
- Millions of Russian users immediately regained access to blocked news and social platforms, directly undermining the Kremlin's wartime information blockade at its peak enforcement moment.
Second-order effects
- The US responded by increasing funding roughly 50% for VPN operators nthLink, Psiphon, and Lantern (US funding surge) to absorb the influx of Russian users, while Top10VPN-documented contracts showed Russia spending $9.8M across 236 procurements on VPN technology for its own censorship apparatus (Russia's own VPN procurement) — both sides arming the same tool category.
Third-order effects
- The pattern hardens into a permanent cat-and-mouse: Proton's block-and-workaround battle with Russian censors (Proton's censorship fight) and later reliance on multi-device workarounds (multi-phone evasions) point toward censorship and circumvention co-evolving indefinitely rather than either side winning.
The trend: State internet censorship is triggering a durable circumvention industry, with governments and startups locked in an escalating arms race over who controls access to the open web.