[Russia] "Whitelists" and ways to deal with them
We get a significant number of tickets about "whitelisting" of mobile internet in Russia and how to bypass it, so after the discussion with @gus I made a dedicated ticket to discuss it.
Background - from May 2025 Russian internet users started experiencing a series of internet shutdowns mostly affecting mobile connection. The series of internet shutdowns was framed by the governments as anti-drone measures, though the shutdowns doesn't always match drone attacks.
Since the absence of mobile internet causes huge problems for everyday life, the government introduces "whitelists" - services and websites available during shutdowns. These resources are Russia-based, with only two messengers available - MAX and VK.
Mobile internet shutdowns are inconsistent across the country of Russia, there are still some places where there are no shutdowns, and there are cities with no mobile internet at all (Izhevsk) for months.
But generally "whitelist" period can last several hours, users told me about 8-10, some user stories (in English) are here
"Whitelists" work inconsistently as well, so some resources that are meant to be available are not available.
Latest developments - new legislation that gives FSB (Federal Security Service of Russia) rights to order ISPs to switch off both mobile and "home" internet connection - tell us that the issue will only grow.
How to bypass "whitelists"?
Right now there are several strategies to bypass "whitelist" restrictions, and the most popular is SNI substitution, but ISPs learn how to curb that.
I found some info on what is included in "white list" and used for SNI substitution here and some observations on what works and what is not.
Out of four big mobile ISPs the worst one Beeline, users report that this way won't work there ("it's easier to use another ISP")
Tunnels via TURN server are also described as a way to bypass "whitelist" restrictions.
Also one of the users told me Happ Proxy and Dino VPN work during the "whitelist" shutdown, but I can't test that.