Russian online marketplaces saw user activity and sales decline after they began blocking VPN users in April, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported, citing a study by Digital Budget.
Mobile traffic at Wildberries dropped 10% in April compared with March. Ozon and Yandex Market each fell 3%, and Avito declined 1.5%. In March, all four platforms had posted mobile traffic growth — Ozon led the group, up 10% month over month.
Sellers on those platforms also reported April revenue declines they attributed to the VPN restrictions, estimating losses of between 3% and 30% compared with March.
Experts estimate the traffic restrictions cost the platforms roughly 1% of revenue in April. With total marketplace sales of 8.59 trillion rubles — based on 2025 figures — that translates to losses of around 7 billion rubles.
The Association of Internet Trade Companies stated that measures such as blocking VPN traffic “unambiguously make it harder” for Russian services to be used by customers both inside the country and abroad.
In late March, the Ministry of Digital Development held a meeting with the heads of major Russian companies at which the minister, Maksut Shadayev, announced that by April 15, companies would be required to block access to their platforms for users with VPNs enabled. Those who continued to allow VPN traffic were threatened with removal from “white lists” and the loss of their Ministry of Digital Development IT accreditation. In late April, after many Russian companies had restricted access for users with VPNs enabled, the Digital Development Ministry said they were doing so “for the security of user data.”
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