Does Windscribe work in Russia?

As of Jul 22, 2026, Windscribe is blocked in Russia.

Status: blocked
Confidence: medium
Last verified: Jul 22, 2026
Method: On the Roskomnadzor blocklist; vendor KB recommends Stealth, WStunnel, or WireGuard on port 443 plus Circumvent Censorship and ships an AmneziaWG app for Russia, but no fresh in-country report confirms any of these connect; if one surfaces this cell should move to degraded

Working alternatives in Russia

No VPN is currently verified as working in Russia. We would rather say that than guess. Check back after the next weekly verification pass.

What we're seeing

Windscribe confirmed a roughly 90 percent traffic drop from Russia in the January 2026 blocking wave. Since then, Russian outage trackers show dated user complaints through late June 2026 reporting no connection on any protocol across Rostelecom, MTS, Beeline, and MGTS, and OONI's June probes returned 12 anomalies out of 12. The vendor's knowledge base suggests Stealth, WStunnel, or WireGuard on port 443, but no fresh in-country report confirms any of these connect; if one surfaces, this cell moves to degraded.

Sources for the above:

user_report (Jul 22, 2026): Russian VPN outage tracker: 2 complaints in the last 24 hours at fetch time, dated user comments Jun 18-26 2026 reporting inability to connect; page states the resource is blocked by decision of Russian state authorities
forum (Jul 22, 2026): Russian downdetector-style page: May 19-20 2026 comments say the app is not working at all on any protocol across Rostelecom, MTS, Beeline, MGTS in four cities; corroboration
vendor (Jul 22, 2026): Vendor KB for high-censorship regions including Russia: try Stealth, WStunnel, WireGuard on 443; expect IKEv2/OpenVPN blocked and working combos to break over time; acknowledgment of blocking, not evidence workarounds succeed
news (Jul 22, 2026): Background (Jan 2026): Windscribe confirmed a roughly 90 percent traffic drop from Russia in the January 2026 blocking wave; establishes the block event
user_report (Jun 22, 2026): OONI Jun 18-22 2026: 12 of 12 Russian probes of windscribe.com returned anomalies, 0 ok; website not tunnel but consistent with everything else

Common questions

Is using a VPN legal in Russia?

Personal use is not banned, but a law passed in July 2025 fines advertising VPNs up to 500,000 rubles and treats VPN use as an aggravating factor in other offenses. The state also blocks VPN services that refuse to censor.

Which VPNs still work in Russia?

As of July 2026, none is verified fully working. Mullvad documents a partial path with QUIC or Shadowsocks, and Proton says Stealth connects for many, though forum reports say it is targeted. Seven of the ten we track are blocked.

Can I pay for a VPN from Russia?

It is hard. Visa and Mastercard stopped working for foreign payments in 2022, and several providers limit Russian accounts. Where a provider accepts them, vouchers or cryptocurrency are the practical routes.