Amnezia VPN restores premium service in Russia following devastating state-sponsored cyberattack

Date:
Mon, 06 Jul 2026 15:09:35 +0000

Description:
Amnezia VPN has successfully restored its Premium service in Russia following a massive, multi-pronged attack by the state censor Roskomnadzor that knocked out 90% of its local servers in June.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Amnezia VPN has restored its Premium service in Russia Amnezia Free is expected return in the coming weeks Roskomnadzor blocked over 90% of its local servers between June 1 and 15 Russian privacy provider Amnezia VPN has successfully restored its Premium service for users in the country, after suffering an unprecedented state-backed infrastructure strike.

Between June 1 and June 15, millions of Amnezia users in Russia lost their connection after the state censor, Roskomnadzor (RKN), launched a multi-pronged offensive that blocked over 90% of the provider's local
servers. The strike represents a dramatic escalation in Moscow's digital crackdown, deploying automated network fingerprinting and targeted cyberattacks to actively hunt down VPN infrastructure.

While the Premium tier is now back online with a newly updated, stealthier protocol, Amnezia has confirmed that its Free tier's Russian stack will
return in the coming weeks.

For internet users trapped behind Russia's "sovereign internet" firewall, the stakes have never been higher. Identifying the best VPN has become a critical lifeline to the free web as the state dumps massive resources into its censorship machine. You may like Amnezia VPN restores 20 Premium server locations and compensates users following cyberattacks 'This is an important release' Amnezia VPN strengthens its apps to fight Russia's new approach to VPN blocking in latest update Russian Roskomnadzor accused of launching
active DDoS attacks on VPN services here's what we know so far A sophisticated, $898 million censorship machine (Image credit: Getty Images) According to Amnezias incident analysis, Roskomnadzor has abandoned basic IP-blocking in favor of a highly automated, aggressive ruleset.

By analyzing network traffic, Russian authorities appear to have learned to identify the unique "network fingerprint" of specific VPN protocols
Amnezia's proprietary AmneziaWG protocol included.

Once RKN's internet censorship and filtering system ( known as TSPU ) detects this fingerprint, it automatically blacklists the server's IP address .
During the June assault, Amnezia attempted to swap out its servers, only to see the fresh IP addresses blocked within hours.

This technological leap is heavily state-funded. Forbes Russia and Kommersant estimate nearly 60 billion roubles (770million) is being spent to strengthen the filtering system, while The Moscow Times projects a wider RKN budget allocation of 70billion roubles (898 million) between 2026 and 2028.

To compound the technical assault, RKN paired its deep packet inspection with traditional hacking tactics, launching active DDoS attacks on VPN services . THis wave of attacks even targeted the Amnezia website, while deploying phishing schemes against the provider's staff. What to read next Amnezia VPN quietly restores the one feature router and TV users were waiting for 'VPN have adapted' How these VPN services dodge Russia's censors 'The situation isnt looking good' Russia halts VPN fees, but the Kremlin's war against censorship circumvention tools doubles down

Mazay Banzaev, founder of Amnezia VPN, believes this escalation is a proof that Roskomnadzor had been preparing a new set of rules for the TSPU for a long time, and fully applied them on June 1. He now expects these measure to be extended to other services operating in Russia.

"Such practices have been used in other countries too, Iran and China, for example, but in Russia they have been taken to a new level of automation: on average, a server is blocked within a few hours of users beginning to connect to it," said Banzaev. Bouncing back with better security Despite the severity of the attack, Amnezia confirmed that no infrastructure was breached and user data remained secure, crediting regular security audits by independent cybersecurity firm 7ASecurity.

To bypass the new TSPU ruleset, Amnezia has dropped a new version of its AmneziaWG protocol . This update strips out the specific feature that allowed censors to identify the VPN traffic in the first place. Users must update their AmneziaVPN client to restore their connection, as the provider has intentionally disabled older, vulnerable versions of the app to prevent
repeat attacks.

To make up for the downtime, Amnezia is also compensating affected users . Premium subscribers on a 6-month plan will receive one extra month of
service, while those on 12-month plans will receive two additional months.

The provider now has its sights set on future expansion, noting that interest in circumventing state censorship continues to surge globally. Amnezia plans to expand its network to 100 locations while developing new, open-source methods to outsmart the censors. Today's best NordVPN, Surfshark and Proton VPN deals NordVPN 2 Year 2.59 /mth View +3 months free Surfshark 24 Months 1.49 /mth View Proton VPN 24 Month 2.39 /mth View We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices Follow TechRadar on Google News and
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/amnezia-vpn-restores-premiu m-service-in-russia-following-devastating-state-sponsored-cyberattack


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