Roskomnadzor Requests Deletion of 47 VPN Apps from Google Play

The publication “Rusbase” reports that over the past week, Roskomnadzor has sent multiple requests to Google to remove dozens of VPN services from the Google Play store. According to the publication, some of these VPNs use Cloudflare infrastructure.

Information about these requests can be found in the Lumen Database—an open database where Google and other international services share details about takedown requests they receive.

Some of the requests include documents stating that Roskomnadzor is demanding the removal of these apps from Google Play under Federal Law No. 149-FZ “On Information, Information Technologies, and Information Protection.” The reason given is that these apps “contain prohibited information about methods and ways to access information resources and/or information and telecommunication networks, access to which is restricted within the Russian Federation.”

“Rusbase” notes that an analysis of Lumen Database statistics over the past six months shows that Roskomnadzor has not previously sent VPN removal requests to Google Play with such frequency.

Recent Internet Outage in Russia

The publication also reminds readers that yesterday there was a large-scale outage on the Russian internet, mainly affecting users in the Siberian and Ural federal districts. Users reported issues with services such as MTS, Rostelecom, Beeline, Epic Games, Figma, Genshin Impact, Discord, Twitch, DeepSeek, and others.

Network experts stated that the outages were related to the blocking of Cloudflare’s infrastructure. In response, Roskomnadzor representatives recommended that domestic organizations “use the resources of Russian hosting providers.”

Cloudflare and VPN Services Targeted

According to information from the Lumen Database, Roskomnadzor is now demanding the removal of Cloudflare’s WARP VPN service from Google Play, as well as other VPNs that also use Cloudflare infrastructure.

It is worth noting that in February 2025, Roskomnadzor forcibly added Cloudflare to the register of information dissemination organizers (ORI). This action followed two fines imposed on Cloudflare for failing to notify the agency about starting operations as an ORI.