Apple pulled several custom VPN clients from the Russian App Store last week, including Streisand, V2Box, v2RayTun, and Happ Proxy Utility.
These aren’t the big-name commercial VPN providers that Apple already removed in 2024 at Roskomnadzor’s request. These are tools that let users connect to their own private servers and configure manual proxies, the kind of apps that give technically savvy Russians the ability to route around state censorship without depending on any company’s infrastructure.
Russian tech outlet Kod Durova first reported the removals, noting that the same apps remain available through Google Play on Android.
Days before the removals surfaced, Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev announced the Kremlin’s most aggressive anti-VPN campaign yet. “We have an obligation to fulfill the tasks that have been set before us. In this case, the task is to reduce the use of VPNs,” Shadayev said on the state-backed messenger Max.
He linked the push to what he called “long, difficult and ultimately unsuccessful” talks with foreign tech companies over compliance with Russian law.
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