Internet Whitelists in Russia: What They Are and What Works
Whitelists are a mode in which mobile internet opens only approved sites and services. Here’s how it works and how to stay connected.
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Regular blocking works the other way around: specific sites are banned, and everything else stays open. Under a whitelist, everything is closed except what's on the approved list. That's why your phone can show full bars while Telegram, YouTube and most websites simply won't load.
Whitelists in plain words
A whitelist is a list of addresses you're allowed to reach. Think of a building with a guest list at the door: if your name isn't on it, you're not getting in — even if you've done nothing wrong.
In Russia, the list is maintained by the Ministry of Digital Development. The first version came out on September 5, 2025, and by spring 2026 it covered more than 500 Russian services. It keeps growing, and it can differ between carriers: a service that works on a MegaFon SIM may not open on MTS in the same neighborhood.
What works under whitelists
The list mostly includes services that millions of people use every day. The most notable ones:
| Category | What usually opens |
|---|---|
| Government | Gosuslugi (public services portal), tax service, agency and regional sites |
| Banks and payments | VTB, T-Bank, Alfa-Bank, PSB, Gazprombank, SBP fast payments, Mir cards |
| Social media and messengers | VK, Odnoklassniki, MAX, Dzen |
| Marketplaces and delivery | Ozon, Wildberries, Avito, Megamarket, Samokat, VkusVill, CDEK |
| Yandex | Search, Maps, Go, Music, Kinopoisk, Lavka, Market |
| Travel and transport | Russian Railways, Tutu.ru, Aeroflot, Pobeda, Maxim taxi, 2GIS |
| Video | VK Video, Rutube, Okko, Ivi |
What's missing: Telegram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Google, the App Store and Google Play. The only place to download apps during restrictions is RuStore. As of spring 2026, even Sberbank — the country's largest bank — wasn't on the official list.
Whitelist vs. blacklist
| Blacklist | Whitelist | |
|---|---|---|
| What's blocked | Specific sites and services | Everything except approved ones |
| What works | Almost the entire internet | About 500 listed services |
| Where it applies | Home and mobile internet | Mobile internet |
| Who maintains it | Roskomnadzor | Ministry of Digital Development |
| What you notice | One particular site won't open | Almost nothing opens |
The numbers show the scale. Enthusiasts who scanned the network over mobile internet counted about 63,000 whitelisted IP addresses — roughly 0.14% of all Russian addresses1. For your phone, everything else effectively stops existing.
Where and when whitelists are switched on
The Rostov region, Krasnodar Krai and Dagestan were the first to face restrictions in June 2025, and the practice later spread to other regions.
The pattern varies a lot. According to user reports, in Moscow whitelists switch on from time to time for a few hours, in St. Petersburg rarely, and in many regions they run constantly. It can change even within one city: on one street only approved services open, and a kilometer away the full internet is back. All major carriers are affected — MTS, Beeline, Tele2 and MegaFon.
Officially, home broadband isn't covered by whitelists2. But if your home internet comes from a SIM-card router or a 4G modem, that's mobile internet too — and it will be restricted just like your phone.
How to tell whitelists are on
- You have signal and the 4G or LTE icon is on, but most sites won't open.
- VK, Yandex, Gosuslugi and your banking app work, while Telegram and YouTube don't.
- A regular VPN won't connect, or connects but pages still don't load.
Why regular VPNs stop working
The carrier's filter checks each connection in two steps. First it looks at the server address: if it isn't on the list, your data never leaves the carrier's network. Then it checks which site the request goes to and tries to recognize VPN traffic by its pattern.
Regular VPN servers aren't on the list. On top of that, UDP traffic is almost entirely cut off under whitelists — and that's what WireGuard and many other VPN protocols run on. The more recognizable the protocol, the faster it gets blocked.
How Buzz VPN works under whitelists
Buzz VPN works under whitelists on mobile internet with all major carriers — MTS, Beeline, Tele2 and MegaFon. It uses the VLESS protocol with REALITY masking: your traffic looks like an ordinary secure connection to a website, so the filter doesn't cut it.
Setup takes a couple of minutes:
- Get a key from the Buzz VPN bot — the 3-day trial is free.
- Install Happ, v2RayTun or INCY.
- Tap "+", then "Paste from clipboard".
- Tap "Connect".
Step-by-step instructions for every device are in the guides section.
Footnotes
-
Habr study "Everything you need to know about whitelists" (in Russian), April 2026. ↩
-
Statement by the Ministry of Digital Development, March 21, 2026. ↩