If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. 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. More: VPNs Keep the Lights On in a Darkening Web What “reduce the use of VPNs” means, translated into policy, is a coordinated effort to make circumventing state surveillance either technically impossible or financially punishing. Shadayev has asked mobile carriers to start charging customers who exceed 15 gigabytes of international data traffic per month, starting May 1. Because VPNs route connections through servers abroad, they surcharge target VPN users specifically. Russian tech companies like Yandex and Wildberries have reportedly been told to block access to their platforms entirely if they detect VPN traffic. The government wants the commercial internet itself to become an enforcement mechanism. The financial squeeze extends further. Starting April 1, mobile operators must disable the ability to top up Apple ID accounts using mobile phone balances. The stated purpose is to cut off a common payment channel for VPN subscriptions, which, according to officials, account for more than 80% of App Store purchases in Russia. The minister publicly acknowledged that the proposed VPN penalties have “sparked a storm of emotions” but defended them as a “difficult compromise.” He added that “We understand all the consequences, but all other options are significantly worse.” Officials apparently discussed making VPN use a criminal offense subject to administrative fines, which Shadayev dismissed as a “blunt solution which we categorically dislike.” The preferred approach, it turns out, isn’t criminalization. It’s financial strangulation paired with technical enforcement, a model that lets the Kremlin avoid the political cost of open punishment while achieving the same result through carrier fees, platform restrictions, and app store removals. VPN adoption surged in Russia after authorities began blocking Western social media and independent news outlets following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The government ran a public campaign in 2023 warning about the supposed dangers of VPN use, and a 2024 law now criminalizes sharing information about how to bypass internet restrictions. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Apple Removes Private VPN Apps From Russia App Store appeared first on Reclaim The Net.