The Second Service of the FSB is behind the blocking of the RuNet

According to The Bell, this unit now oversees blocking messengers, fighting VPNs and putting pressure on IT companies

Control over the Internet in Russia since the summer of 2025 has passed to the Second Service of the FSB , a unit responsible for “protecting the constitutional order” and combating terrorism. The Bell writes about this with reference to sources in the IT industry, the telecommunications market and payment services. According to the publication, the latest restrictions in RuNet are associated with the activities of this service - from problems with calls on WhatsApp and Telegram to a large-scale campaign against VPNs and attempts to completely block foreign instant messengers.

The Bell's interlocutors claim that there has been a “big shift” in the industry. If previously the Internet and communications were supervised by the technical divisions of the FSB, now the initiative has been seized by the structure responsible for internal political security.
Sources believe that this changed the very approach to regulation: instead of technical control, political prohibitions and forceful pressure on the market received priority.

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IT companies are presented with a fait accompli

According to The Bell, at one of the last meetings at the Ministry of Digital Development , telecom operators and Internet companies were actually obliged to independently deal with means of bypassing blocking. A source in the IT industry claims that participants were simply given instructions, told to sign them and warned of serious consequences for refusing to comply.

“It all looked like complete nonsense - they simply printed out and distributed leaflets [with instructions to fight VPN] to the heads of all companies, ordered them to sign and immediately took them away. Everyone who did not comply was promised punishment,” the source told The Bell.

According to sources, companies were made clear that if they disobeyed, they could be deprived of tax benefits, IT accreditation and excluded from “white lists” - a list of resources that should remain accessible even with Internet restrictions. Separate pressure was allegedly exerted on payment services: they were ordered to stop operations related to VPN payments.

The role of the Second Service and Alexey Sedov

The Bell's sources associate the tightening of Internet policy with the head of the Second Service of the FSB , Alexei Sedov. According to them, in the summer of 2025 he could receive expanded powers after a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. One of the publication’s interlocutors claims that Sedov allegedly “promised Putin to restore order on the Internet” and after that received carte blanche.

The Bell writes that the Second Service is considered the successor to the 5th Directorate of the KGB of the USSR and plays a key role in domestic politics. She is credited with overseeing cases of extremism, monitoring the opposition, participating in the recognition of organizations as “undesirables” and “foreign agents,” as well as ideological control.

Journalists also recall that it was the employees of this unit that were previously linked to the poisoning of oppositionists Alexei Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza.

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Telegram, VPN and consequences for the Kremlin

According to the publication, the Second Service’s offensive on the Runet began no later than the summer of 2025. Sources associate with her restrictions on calls on WhatsApp and Telegram in August last year, and then a campaign to completely block the messenger Pavel Durov . The Bell also writes that on the eve of a new wave of pressure on Telegram, Russian state media simultaneously published materials criticizing the messenger “based on FSB materials.”

At the same time, interference in the operation of the Internet hit not only users and the IT industry, but also the authorities themselves. Against the background of blocking, interest in VPNs has sharply increased, and Telegram restrictions and mobile Internet shutdowns have caused irritation even among pro-war bloggers and governors of border regions. According to VTsIOM, Vladimir Putin's approval rating dropped to 67.8% in early April - this is the lowest figure since the beginning of the war. As Vorstka reported, anxiety and irritation are growing among the nuclear electorate of United Russia .

The Bell writes that within the government there is also growing dissatisfaction with the consequences of this approach. Bloomberg previously reported that some senior officials are warning about the political and economic risks of strict Internet restrictions. But, as The Bell's sources note, there are no signs of real easing yet.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously said that Internet restrictions were dictated by security considerations and would last as long as necessary. According to him, in the future everything will “normalize,” but the Kremlin does not give any specific dates.

Photo: FSB building on Lubyanka Square in Moscow, June 24, 2023. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

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