Russia's mobile internet whitelist: what still works

Sometimes the only thing left open on a mobile network in Russia is a list of approved services: government portals, banks, marketplaces. Here is what is known about it, from dated publications and the carriers' own pages.

What the whitelist is and who maintains it

It is a list of sites, services and mobile apps that stay reachable while mobile internet is limited. Everything below comes from publications and from carrier pages, not from us:

• The first list was published on 5 September 2025 — Lenta.ru writes so in its explainer of 26 May 2026.
• It now holds more than 500 entries. RIA Novosti on 12 March 2026 (the piece was updated on 28 July) writes: “more than 500 Russian sites, services and mobile apps”, sorted into 16 categories — government sites, banks, marketplaces, social networks and messengers, supermarkets and delivery, transport and travel, media, healthcare, entertainment, classifieds, carriers' own account pages.
• The list is maintained by the ministry together with the carriers and other agencies (RIA Novosti, same piece). The carriers draw that line themselves: MegaFon's page says plainly that the ministry compiles the list and the carrier only configures those services so that they work reliably (translated by us from Russian).
• The conditions for getting on the list, as RIA Novosti states them: high demand among users, meeting security requirements, hosting the computing capacity inside Russia, and a recommendation from state bodies as a socially significant resource.
• There is no single document with the list. The ministry publishes additions as separate announcements (Lenta.ru, 26 May), and carriers keep their own version: MegaFon has a page called “Whitelist of services”, MTS published a piece on 1 June 2026. Both write that the list will keep growing, and MegaFon adds that the set of available services differs between regions.

Hence the first practical conclusion: a list retold in a chat goes stale faster than it spreads. If it matters to you what will open on your line, look at your own carrier's page rather than at someone else's screenshot.

Why everything works on Wi-Fi but not on mobile data

This is the most common confusion, and both sides — the ministry and the carriers — have answered it.

• The mode concerns the mobile network. RIA Novosti, 12 March: the restrictions apply to mobile internet only, while home internet and Wi-Fi keep working as usual (translated by us).
• The ministry spoke about home internet separately. On 21 March 2026, Interfax reports, its press office said that reports about fixed-line providers preparing to leave only whitelisted services on their networks are fake (translated by us).
• The carrier gives the same advice in its own words. Asked “What if the service you need is not on the list?”, MegaFon answers on its page that during restrictions you can use any service over Wi-Fi (translated by us).
• A cellular signal is still required. Same page: the services are available only where there is a 3G or 4G/LTE signal. If the phone has no network at all, the whitelist has nothing to do with it.

⚠️ Not every “works on Wi-Fi, fails on mobile data” is this. That difference has other causes too, and we have our own per-carrier measurement of them: why a connection will not come up on mobile data. Telling them apart is easy: in whitelist mode no ordinary site opens at all, while the government portal and the bank do.

The latest report: whitelist addresses moving into separate subnets

The most recent thing we found on the topic concerns how the list itself is built, not what a person with a phone sees.

• On 31 August, Vedomosti and Kommersant write, each citing a copy of the ministry's letter: the ministry asked hosting providers, CDN providers and web protection services to move the addresses of whitelisted resources into separate subnets. The purpose named in those publications is to keep resources whose content is banned in Russia out of those subnets.
• On 4 September NGS wrote about the same letter, listing its addressees: hosting providers, CDN providers and DDoS protection services.

What to take from it. No deadlines were named in those reports, and there is no confirmation from the ministry in them — the outlets cite a copy of the letter whose authenticity one of the recipients confirmed. We found no reports as of 20 September that the move has happened. How it will end and when, we do not know and will not predict.

What happens to Mayak in that mode

We answer this plainly, because it is the only honest way: in whitelist mode Mayak will not connect over mobile data. Over Wi-Fi it connects as usual.

Here is why. Our servers are not on the ministry's list, and they cannot get there: one of the conditions RIA Novosti names is hosting the computing capacity inside Russia plus a recommendation from a state body, and our servers are abroad. So on a mobile network where only the list is open, the app has nowhere to reach: it will walk its connection paths one after another and find none of them.

The same answer, from the carrier's side, sits on MegaFon's whitelist page. The question there is whether whitelisted services will work with a VPN; the answer is no — for the services to work correctly the VPN has to be turned off (translated by us). If what you need right now is the government portal or your bank, turn the tunnel off — and we would rather say that plainly than hide it.

⚠️ What this is NOT. It is not our measurement. We have no mobile line in a region with the restriction switched on, and we have never measured anything in that mode. Everything above follows from how the list is built and from what the people who build it say about it. Once we have a measurement, we will publish numbers.

The switch that leaves the phone with no connectivity

This is the one place where we can warn you in advance — and it is about Android itself, not about Mayak.

The system has two switches: “Always-on VPN” (the phone brings the connection up by itself after a reboot) and “Block connections without VPN” — what English-language articles call a kill switch: while there is no tunnel, the phone has no internet at all. They live in the phone settings rather than in the app: Settings → Network & internet → VPN → the gear next to the app. Details are in the piece about connections that drop by themselves.

What that means in whitelist mode. The second switch waits for a tunnel, and in this mode the tunnel will not come up — so the phone is left with no connectivity at all: even the services the carrier kept available will not open. From the outside it looks like “the internet is gone entirely”, while the government portal is working at that very moment on an identical phone next to you.

The switch is a system one and applies to any app you enabled it for, not just ours. We have not verified this in a live whitelist mode: it follows from what the switch itself does.

What to do when the restriction is on

1. Check Wi-Fi. The mode concerns the mobile network; home internet and Wi-Fi, according to both the ministry and the carriers, work as usual.
2. If you need a whitelisted service, turn the tunnel off. That is not our invention: it is how the carrier itself answers the direct question.
3. Look into your system settings. If “Block connections without VPN” is on, in this mode the phone is left with no connectivity at all — there is a separate section about it above.
4. Read the list on your carrier's page. MegaFon and MTS both have one, both write that the list keeps growing, and MegaFon separately notes regional differences.
5. Do not trust retellings in chats. There is no single document, the contents change, and a year-old screenshot looks exactly as convincing as yesterday's.

What we checked

• The publications. On 20 September 2026 we opened and read the pieces we cite: Vedomosti and Kommersant of 31 August, NGS of 4 September, RIA Novosti of 12 March, Interfax of 21 March, Lenta.ru of 26 May. The dates and quotes in the text come from them.
• The carrier pages. The same day we opened MegaFon's whitelist page and the MTS piece of 1 June 2026. Everything attributed to carriers here is our translation of what stands on their pages in Russian.
• Fresh news. We looked for reports on the topic after 4 September and, separately, after 18 September — and found nothing new. “We did not find it” does not mean “there is none”: news search does not see everything.
• Our own app. We have NOT tested it in a live whitelist mode, not once. That it will not connect there is a conclusion drawn from the conditions for getting on the list, not a measurement.

What we do not know

We try to make sure nothing more can be read out of our text than it actually says.

• When and where the mode is switched on. That is not ours to decide; we make no forecasts and pass no judgements.
• The full contents of the list. There is no single document, additions are published piecemeal, and the carrier notes regional differences. Any “complete table” on the internet is somebody's compilation, and ours would be one too.
• What it looks like on a particular line. We have zero measurements in that mode. We do not know what actually opens on which carrier, and we will not retell other people's observations.
• Whether the move into separate subnets will happen. No deadlines were named in the reports of 31 August and 4 September, and there is no confirmation from the ministry in them.
• Whether home internet will be affected. On 21 March the ministry called such reports fake. What happens next is unknown.
• The legal side. We retell publications; we do not give legal advice.

Short answers

What is a whitelist, in plain words? The list of sites, services and apps that stay reachable while mobile internet is limited. The ministry maintains it together with the carriers; according to RIA Novosti it holds more than 500 entries.

Where can I see the whitelist? There is no single document: the ministry publishes additions as separate announcements, and carriers keep their own version — MegaFon and MTS both have a page. Both write that the list keeps growing.

What is on the list? Per RIA Novosti, 16 categories: government sites, banks, marketplaces, social networks and messengers, supermarkets and delivery, transport, media, healthcare, entertainment, classifieds, carrier account pages and others. We do not reprint the entries by name: they change.

Does this affect home internet and Wi-Fi? No. The restrictions concern the mobile network; on 21 March 2026 the ministry called reports about whitelists at fixed-line providers fake.

Does Mayak work while whitelists are on? Over mobile data — no; over Wi-Fi — yes. We are not on the list, and we will not claim otherwise.

Will the “RU apps” preset help? No. It splits traffic once the tunnel is up, and in this mode it will not come up. The preset exists for something else — to send Russian apps past the tunnel.

Why do only the government portal and my bank open? That looks like this very mode: on the mobile network the list stays open and the rest does not. Easy to check: on Wi-Fi everything opens.

What if the service I need is not on the list? In the carrier's own words: during restrictions you can use any service over Wi-Fi.

Is this here to stay? We do not know. The first list appeared in September 2025 and has been growing since; beyond what is described above we found no timelines or plans.