---
title: "A Waste of Billions: Pavel Durov on the Failure of Russia and Iran to Block VPNs"
description: "Pavel Durov stated that Russia and Iran spent billions on blocking VPNs but failed. Bans only push users toward more dangerous censorship circumvention tools, and attempts at control often lead to internet outages. 🚀🔒"
date: 2026-06-16T16:03:25.000Z
lang: en
url: https://xab.info/en/posts/durov-on-the-failure-of-vpn-blocking-in-russia-and-iran
tags: []
publisher: "XAB.info"
---

# A Waste of Billions: Pavel Durov on the Failure of Russia and Iran to Block VPNs

![Red Ethernet cable plugged into server — symbol of failed internet censorship attempts criticized by Pavel Durov](https://xab.info/media/2026/06/16/durov-o-provale-blokirovki-vpn-v-rossii-i-irane/durov-o-provale-blokirovki-vpn-v-rossii-i-irane-1.webp)

Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messenger, voiced a harsh assessment of states' attempts to control internet traffic in his account on the social network X (formerly Twitter). According to him, the authorities of Russia and Iran spent billions of dollars trying to block VPN services, but ultimately suffered a crushing defeat.

These statements were made in response to a discussion about banning social networks for minors. A user with the nickname @crash_matrix expressed the opinion that restrictive measures are incapable of protecting children from dangerous content, as users always find ways around them. Even if technological powers like the USA or the UK were to implement expensive deep packet inspection (DPI) mechanisms, it would not lead to success — users would simply switch to other protocols.

### The Boomerang Effect: Why Bans are Dangerous

Durov supported this point of view, drawing historical parallels. He noted that banning social networks for teenagers paradoxically increases the risks to their safety. In attempts to bypass state blocks, children begin to use VPN services, which open access to much more dangerous and illegal content than what they are trying to protect them from.

"We have already seen something similar. When the Russian government banned Telegram, 95% of Russian teenagers continued to use it. They simply switched to VPNs," wrote Durov, emphasizing the ineffectiveness of administrative pressure on digital technologies.

### The Technical Impossibility of Total Control

In the opinion of the founder of Telegram, completely banning the use of VPNs is technically impossible. The experience of Russia and Iran has shown that even with colossal financial investments in censorship infrastructure, the population continues to bypass restrictions. The majority of citizens in these countries successfully use the messenger using anonymization tools.

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that authorities' attempts to "strangle" traffic often lead to side effects. Thus, on April 7, Russia experienced a massive internet outage. Users complained en masse about interruptions in home connections, banking applications, and popular websites. Experts linked this incident to the overload of blocking technical means which, trying to filter prohibited traffic, brought down the operation of legal services.

### Telegram's Countermove

Against the backdrop of growing pressure from states striving for digital sovereignty, the Telegram team is not standing still. On April 11, Durov announced an important update to the messenger. A new anti-censorship protocol was implemented in the application, designed to make bypassing blocks even simpler and more reliable for users. This confirms the thesis that in the technological race between censors and developers of information freedom tools, victory most often remains with the latter.