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Censorship Monitor · Russia Last test

Is Instagram banned in Russia?

Yes. Russia has blocked Instagram since 14 March 2022, and a Moscow court banned it as “extremist” a week later. It doesn’t open in Russia without a VPN.

Today’s test · www.instagram.com

Blocked

www.instagram.com fails to open on Rostelecom and MTS, twice, while it opens from other countries.

Last confirmed
Seen in our tests since
29 Sep 2026 (may be older)
How it fails
The connection never completes
Tested on
Rostelecom and MTS
Test Instagram yourself › Everything we test in Russia

The official status

Instagram in Russia

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s internet regulator, blocked Instagram on 14 March 2022 at the Prosecutor General’s demand, saying it spread calls for violence against Russians after Meta relaxed its rules for users in some countries.

On 21 March 2022 a Moscow court banned Meta’s Facebook and Instagram for “extremist activity”. The ruling didn’t cover WhatsApp, and the authorities said individual users wouldn’t be punished.

Since February 2026 Instagram’s address has also been missing from Russia’s national DNS, the state-run name lookup system internet providers have to use.

Get past a block

How to use Instagram in Russia

A VPN connects you through a server in another country, so a block on Instagram in Russia no longer applies. Where VPNs themselves are blocked, you need one that can disguise its traffic, and you should set it up before you travel.

Using a VPN isn’t illegal in Russia, but VPN providers that won’t cooperate with the government are blocked.

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Around the world

Where else is Instagram blocked?

Instagram is also blocked in 2 other countries we test.

It opens in 21 of the 23 other countries with a current result.

Instagram in every country we test ›

Russia

What else is blocked in Russia?

31 of the other 66 sites and apps we test are blocked in Russia.

All 67 results for Russia ›

History

Changes for Instagram in Russia

No confirmed changes since monitoring began on 29 Sep 2026. When a block appears or lifts, and a re-check on several machines agrees, it shows up here.

Method

How we test

  • Every day, test machines on Rostelecom and MTS home connections open www.instagram.com.
  • A failure counts only when it happens twice on the same network, while the site opens from other countries.
  • A change is published only after re-checks a few hours later and again the next day, on several machines per provider, confirm it. It’s dated from the first sighting.
  • Test machines caught getting around blocks, through a VPN or a filter-dodging tool, are set aside.
  • We test the website over home broadband. The app, calls and mobile networks can behave differently.

Full method ›

Questions

Instagram in Russia: questions

Does Instagram Work in Russia?

No. Russia has blocked Instagram since 14 March 2022, and a Moscow court banned it as “extremist” a week later. It doesn’t open in Russia without a VPN.

Is It Illegal to Use Instagram in Russia?

Using it isn’t punished in itself. When a Moscow court banned Instagram as “extremist” in March 2022, the authorities said they didn’t intend to punish individual Russians who use it.

Why Was Instagram Blocked in Russia?

Roskomnadzor said in March 2022 that Instagram spread calls for violence against Russians after Meta relaxed its rules for some countries. A court then banned Meta’s Facebook and Instagram as “extremist”.

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Cite this result

Quote or republish today’s result with a link to this page: the monitor’s data is under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0).

Source: vpnAlert Censorship Monitor, https://vpnalert.com/tools/censorship-monitor/russia/instagram/

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