Unverified: The Claim That Russian VPN Use Jumped from 23% to 36% Can't Be Confirmed
“The share of Russians acknowledging VPN use increased from 23% in 2022 to 36% in 2025”
The argument in brief
A widely shared claim states that the share of Russians admitting to VPN use rose from 23% in 2022 to 36% in 2025, suggesting a surge in censorship circumvention. The verdict is unverifiable: while VPN adoption in Russia genuinely spiked after 2022, no publicly accessible source confirms these specific numbers. The figures may come from a paywalled or proprietary survey that cannot be independently checked.
Why it spread
Exact-sounding percentages make a claim feel like established fact rather than an estimate. This particular statistic also fits a compelling and emotionally resonant narrative — ordinary Russians quietly pushing back against state censorship — which makes people want it to be true and less likely to pause and ask for a source.
The claim is straightforward: Russian acknowledgment of VPN use nearly doubled in three years, from 23% in 2022 to 36% in 2025. It sounds precise, it fits a real trend, and it has circulated in discussions about internet freedom and Russian censorship. The problem is that the specific numbers cannot be traced to any verifiable public source.
The broader story is real. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered a wave of new internet restrictions, and VPN downloads inside Russia spiked dramatically. Digital rights group Roskomsvoboda tracked rising adoption, and research firm Top10VPN documented massive demand surges tied to specific censorship events in 2022 and 2024. The direction of the trend — more Russians using VPNs over time — is well supported.
But direction and specific percentages are different things. Statista publishes data on Russian VPN usage and notes significant growth, but does not confirm the 23% and 36% figures in any publicly accessible summary. GWI, which tracks VPN use globally and ranks Russia among the highest-adoption countries, also does not surface these numbers in open data. Neither does any peer-reviewed or government-sourced survey.
The most honest reading is that these figures may originate from a proprietary or paywalled survey — possibly GWI or Russia's independent Levada Center — that journalists or commentators cited without linking to the original. That makes the claim impossible to fact-check, not necessarily false. But a statistic you cannot verify is one you should not repeat as fact, no matter how plausible it feels.
This kind of claim spreads because precise numbers feel authoritative. A figure like '36%' signals that someone actually measured something, which makes the story feel grounded. When that number also confirms what people already believe — that Russians are quietly resisting state censorship — the incentive to share it without checking the source gets even stronger. If you see statistics like these, ask one question first: where exactly did this number come from?
Sources
- Roskomsvoboda / VPN usage tracking in Russia
Roskomsvoboda, a Russian digital rights organization, has tracked VPN adoption trends following increased internet censorship, particularly after February 2022, but specific survey figures of 23% (2022) and 36% (2025) are not confirmed in their publicly available reports.
- Statista - VPN usage in Russia
Statista has published data on VPN usage in Russia showing significant growth after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with millions of downloads recorded, but the specific percentage figures of 23% and 36% cited in the claim are not directly confirmed in publicly accessible Statista summaries.
- GlobalWebIndex / GWI Consumer Survey
GWI tracks VPN usage globally including Russia, and has noted Russia among top countries for VPN adoption, but the specific survey figures of 23% in 2022 and 36% in 2025 cannot be independently verified from publicly available GWI data.
- Top10VPN - Russia VPN Usage Report
Top10VPN documented massive spikes in VPN demand in Russia following censorship events in 2022 and 2024, consistent with a general upward trend, but does not confirm the specific percentage benchmarks of 23% and 36% cited in the claim.