Roskomnadzor strengthens blocking: failures of online games and mass VPN outages are recorded in Russia - Layout

Users report being unable to connect to foreign game servers

Massive outages in online games have been recorded in Russia, most likely related to the actions of Roskomnadzor . On Sunday, January 25, users began reporting the inability to connect to foreign game servers - errors with code “50000” appeared in a number of projects.

The restrictions reportedly affected the games REP O and VRChat, but other projects using foreign server infrastructure may also be blocked, including Party Animals, Warhammer 40,000: Gladius and Call of Duty: Mobile.

There are no official clarifications from Roskomnadzor and gaming companies yet.

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“Carpet blocking” of VPN and change of tactics of RKN

At the same time, Roskomnadzor began so-called “carpet blocking” of VPN services, trying to cut off access to everything that is not included in the “white lists.” Market participants note that the agency has changed its tactics: while individual IP clusters were previously blocked, now entire subnetworks of services are subject to restrictions.

Tech experts are calling it a "Red Wedding" for the VPN industry - they estimate that about 70% of VPN providers have gone out of business or experienced critical outages due to skyrocketing traffic costs.

What VPN services say and what will happen next

VPN services confirmed receipt of blocking notifications through Yandex and VK, but stated that the infrastructure continues to operate.

“The signal reaches the “white” IPs, but is blocked at the output to foreign servers. We use technology similar to that used by Telegram in 2018 - the connection continues despite the blocking of servers in the Russian Federation. It’s expensive and difficult, but it’s possible,” says the Durov Code publication.

Roskomnadzor's current methods are said to be due to the physical limitations of the censorship system. By January 2026, Roskomnadzor blocked 439 VPN services. This is a 70% increase compared to October 2025.

An additional factor of pressure on the market will be the entry into force on March 1, 2026 of new rules expanding the powers of Roskomnadzor. The department will have the right to manually manage data transmission routes, block resources, redirect traffic through technical means of countering threats and, if necessary, isolate the Runet from the global network.

Earlier, “Layout” talked about how Roskomnadzor promises to introduce AI filtering of Internet content this year. The project budget exceeds 2 billion rubles.

Photo: Roskomnadzor, illustrative image. "United Russia"

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