Online safety & content laws in Russia (2026)

Government Decree No. 1667 (signed 27 Oct 2025) entered into force, transitioning RuNet isolation from a standby 'readiness' posture to a permanently active instrument valid through 2032. Roskomnadzor, the FSB, and the Ministry of Digital Development gained real-time authority to reroute or sever Russia's internet from the global web during cyberattacks, critical infrastructure failures, or undefined 'specific threats.'

Putin's government adopted Decree No. 1667, formalising rules for centralised management of Russia's public communications network. It expanded Roskomnadzor's authority to issue binding orders to all telecom operators, enabling isolation or rerouting of domestic internet traffic and cementing the operational framework for a fully autonomous RuNet.

Roskomnadzor, without a formal ban announcement, throttled YouTube to 128 kbps on mobile and 512 kbps on QUIC using state-mandated DPI hardware targeting Google's SNI tags — sufficient only for 240p video. YouTube's share of Russian internet traffic collapsed from 43 % before throttling to 6–12 % by January 2025, the most consequential use of sovereign-internet infrastructure since its installation.

Tverskoy District Court of Moscow, on a Prosecutor General petition backed by Roskomnadzor and the FSB, declared Meta Platforms an extremist organisation and banned all its activities in Russia. Facebook had been blocked on 4 March and Instagram on 14 March 2022 immediately after Russia's invasion of Ukraine — the largest social-media censorship event in Russian internet history.

Roskomnadzor throttled Twitter to 10 % of normal speed on all mobile networks and 50 % on desktop, citing Twitter's failure to delete 3,000+ items (CSAM, drug promotion, pro-suicide content). The action accidentally throttled Kremlin.ru and the State Duma website due to shared t.co shortlinks — a public demonstration of the risks and limits of DPI-based enforcement.

Signed by Putin on 1 May 2019, amendments to Federal Laws 149-FZ and 126-FZ (On Communications) came into force requiring all ISPs to install Roskomnadzor-funded DPI hardware, connect to a national DNS, and route traffic via state-controlled exchange points. The law granted Roskomnadzor authority to centralise routing control 'in a crisis' — creating the technical backbone for an autonomous RuNet.

Signed into law, Federal Law No. 276-FZ required VPN providers, anonymisers, and proxy services to connect to Roskomnadzor's registry and block access to prohibited resources — or face blocking themselves. It also criminalised publishing instructions on circumventing internet filtering, directly targeting civil-society bypass tools.

Amendments to Federal Laws 149-FZ and 152-FZ came into force requiring all operators collecting personal data of Russian citizens to store it on servers physically within Russia. LinkedIn was blocked in November 2016 for non-compliance — the first major Western platform blocked under this statute — establishing a precedent of using data law as leverage over foreign platforms.

Bloggers with daily audiences exceeding 3,000 readers were required to register with Roskomnadzor, disclose their real identity, and comply with mass-media obligations — effectively ending anonymous political blogging. The law was repealed in 2017 after proving largely unenforceable, but its chilling effect on independent online commentary was significant.

Roskomnadzor blocked Alexei Navalny's blog, Kasparov.ru, and Grani.ru without court order under emergency provisions, citing 'calls for unlawful activity.' This was the first overt application of the 2012 blacklist architecture to suppress political speech, transforming the law from a child-safety tool into a censorship instrument.