---
title: "Working from Russia with a Mac: internet, eSIMs and what’s blocked"
url: "https://kilobat.app/travel/russia"
description: "Working from Russia with a Mac: blocked platforms, mobile internet disruptions, possible roaming interruption on arrival and SIM identity checks."
---

Travel · Europe and Asia

# Working from Russia with a Mac: internet, eSIMs and what’s blocked

Russia’s internet has changed fast since 2022. Western platforms have been blocked one after another, mobile internet is cut in many regions with only a list of approved services left working, and getting a local SIM now takes biometrics. This guide describes the situation as reported up to the date checked; it changes often.

**Travel advice.** The UK government advises against all travel to Russia, citing the continuing invasion of Ukraine[1](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-1). Check your own government’s advice before you consider going.

Region

Europe and Asia

Blocked

WhatsApp, FaceTime, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Signal, Viber and Google Meet[2](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-2)[3](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-3); Telegram restricted[2](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-2).

Calls

Calls in WhatsApp and Telegram restricted since August 2025[2](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-2); FaceTime blocked[3](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-3).

SIM rule

Foreigners need biometrics, a Gosuslugi account and a SNILS number for a Russian SIM[7](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-7).

VPN law

The law targets VPN services and VPN advertising[8](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-8)[9](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-9); searching on purpose for “extremist” material is fined, VPN or not[8](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-8).

**Checked 1 November 2026.** Rules and blocks change, sometimes overnight. Each claim links to its source; where a source and this page differ, the source wins.

## What’s blocked or restricted

The regulator, Roskomnadzor, has blocked or restricted most Western communication services, and authorities push people towards the state-backed messenger Max[2](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-2)[3](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-3).

- **Messaging and calls.** Roskomnadzor blocked WhatsApp, FaceTime and Snapchat in December 2025[3](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-3). In February 2026 WhatsApp said the government was trying to block it fully, and the Kremlin confirmed the regulator was blocking it[2](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-2). Telegram has had new restrictions since 10 February 2026[2](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-2).
- **Social networks and meetings.** Facebook, Instagram, Signal, Viber and Google Meet were blocked earlier[3](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-3). In February 2026, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram also appeared to have been removed from Russia’s national DNS[2](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-2).
- **Mobile internet shutdowns.** Mobile internet is switched off in many regions, in Moscow and Saint Petersburg as well in March 2026, with officials citing drone threats[4](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-4). During a shutdown, only services on a government “whitelist” are meant to keep working: government services, domestic platforms, banks, shops and taxis[4](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-4). Even listed sites sometimes fail to load[4](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-4).

Monitoring groups say most regions now face daily disruptions, and President Putin has defended the outages and declined to give advance notice of them[5](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-5). Plan for mobile data to vanish without warning. When a service won’t load at all, Kilobat can identify signs of a network block or a service’s own regional refusal, though the result can be inconclusive. See [blocked here, not down](https://kilobat.app/is-it-down#blocked-here).

## Calling apps

Since August 2025 Roskomnadzor has restricted voice and video calls in WhatsApp and Telegram, which it describes as an anti-fraud measure[2](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-2). FaceTime is blocked[3](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-3), and Google Meet was blocked earlier[3](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-3).

- Ordinary phone calls through a carrier aren’t internet calls, so the app restrictions don’t apply to them. In the March 2026 Moscow shutdown, though, people lost mobile calls as well as mobile internet[4](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-4).
- For work meetings, check in advance which app both sides can reach. A mobile shutdown can take any internet call down at the same time[4](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-4).

## How mobile data reaches your Mac

There are three ways to get mobile data to your Mac, and each has a catch in Russia.

- **A foreign SIM, roaming.** Roaming data can pass through your home carrier[10](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-10), but availability and filtering vary. UK travel advice says non-Russian SIMs may lose internet and SMS. Any SIM absent from a Russian network for 72 hours may initially lose these services for several hours to several days[13](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-13).
- **A travel eSIM.** These can exit through an operator in a third country[10](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-10)[11](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-11). A roaming eSIM can also face service disruption; check with the provider before travel[13](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-13).
- **A Russian SIM.** Traffic goes through the Russian network, so the blocks and the whitelist during shutdowns apply in full[4](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-4). Getting one takes several days of paperwork for a foreigner[6](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-6).

Shutdowns hit the mobile network in the affected area, whichever SIM you use[4](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-4). Wi-Fi on a fixed line may be the only connection that works.

## What the law says about VPNs

Russian law targets VPN services and certain uses of them more than VPN use itself.

- Russian law already bars VPN services from giving access to blocked sites, and until mid-2025 individual VPN users had not faced legal consequences[9](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-9).
- Since 1 September 2025, searching online on purpose for material deemed “extremist” is a misdemeanour, including when using a VPN, with fines of 3,000 to 5,000 roubles[8](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-8).
- The same law fines anyone who advertises VPNs, from 50,000 to 80,000 roubles for individuals and up to 500,000 for companies[8](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-8).
- The digital development minister said in March 2026 that reducing VPN use is a priority for his ministry[5](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-5).

According to the digital development minister, prosecutors must prove that a search was intentional[8](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-8). What counts as “extremist” is decided by Russian authorities.

## SIM and eSIM registration

Since 1 January 2025, foreign nationals must register their biometrics to get a Russian SIM card[7](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-7).

- You need a passport with a notarised translation, a SNILS insurance number, your migration card and registration slip, a confirmed Gosuslugi account, biometrics recorded at a bank, and your phone’s IMEI[7](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-7).
- At the bank, an officer records your biometrics and asks you to repeat a sequence of numbers in Russian[7](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-7).
- No more than 10 active SIM cards per person; the SIM is activated through a notification in your Gosuslugi account[7](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-7).

## Hotel and café Wi-Fi

Hotels, cafés and coworking spaces on fixed broadband are often the steadier connection, because the shutdowns so far have targeted mobile networks[4](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-4). A fixed line is still a Russian connection, so the same sites stay blocked.

- A law signed in February 2026 lets the security service order fixed-line blocks without a court order[4](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-4), so don’t count on hotel Wi-Fi either.
- Sign-in pages are ordinary web pages. If one never appears, see [why the Wi-Fi sign-in page doesn’t show](https://kilobat.app/guides/captive-portal-not-appearing).

## Prepare your Mac before you go

Prepare as if mobile data won’t be there when you need it.

- Download documents, installers, updates and anything stored in blocked services before you go.
- For two-factor sign-in, an authenticator app calculates codes on your device from a shared secret and the clock[12](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-12), so codes work offline when SMS is unavailable.
- Save offline maps, tickets and addresses. Maps and taxi apps were among what failed in the Moscow shutdowns[4](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-4).
- Agree a fallback with family and colleagues, such as an ordinary phone call, since calls in WhatsApp and Telegram are restricted[2](https://kilobat.app/travel/russia#source-2).

## Where Kilobat helps

Kilobat checks your connection and the service to help you investigate what may be wrong.

- **Is it them or me, or blocked here?** Kilobat checks your connection and the service’s status page. It may identify signs of a network block or a service’s own regional refusal; results can be inconclusive. See [blocked here, not down](https://kilobat.app/is-it-down#blocked-here) and [“not available in your region” answers](https://kilobat.app/docs/health#region-unavailable).
- **Hotel Wi-Fi sign-in.** Kilobat can notice a sign-in page and offers a button to open it. With Pro, it can warn before a session expires once it has learned its usual length. See [hotel Wi-Fi login on a Mac](https://kilobat.app/hotel-wifi-login-mac).
- **Leak test.** The VPN leak test checks for selected DNS, IPv6 and UDP leaks. Passing these checks does not prove that all traffic uses the VPN. See [proxies and VPNs](https://kilobat.app/proxies-vpns).
- **Hotspot data saver and data packs.** Roaming data is expensive. The Travel profile holds back backups and updaters, and a budget that starts over only when you reset it matches a fixed data pack. See [save hotspot data](https://kilobat.app/save-hotspot-data).
- **Call reports.** After each call, Kilobat says whether it froze and why, so a shutdown isn’t mistaken for bad Wi-Fi. See [video calls](https://kilobat.app/video-calls) and [Kilobat for digital nomads](https://kilobat.app/digital-nomads).

Guides for the road: [Wi-Fi login page does not appear on a Mac](https://kilobat.app/guides/captive-portal-not-appearing), [Mac uses Personal Hotspot data in the background](https://kilobat.app/guides/hotspot-background-data), [Set a monthly data budget that resets on renewal day](https://kilobat.app/guides/recipes/monthly-data-budget) and [Find why one site or API won't connect](https://kilobat.app/guides/recipes/why-cant-it-connect).

## Sources

1. [UK FCDO: Russia travel advice](https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/russia) Travel advice
2. [The Moscow Times: WhatsApp accuses Russian government of trying to “fully block” platform (February 2026)](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/02/12/whatsapp-accuses-russian-government-of-trying-to-fully-block-platform-a91928) News
3. [The Barents Observer: banned and blocked, Russia says goodbye to messaging apps (December 2025)](https://www.thebarentsobserver.com/news/banned-and-blocked-russia-says-goodbye-to-messaging-apps/441875) News
4. [Human Rights Watch: Russia, internet shutdowns escalate (March 2026)](https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/31/russia-internet-shutdowns-escalate) Rights group
5. [The Moscow Times: Putin defends mobile internet outages as necessary measure (April 2026)](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/04/23/putin-defends-mobile-internet-outages-as-necessary-measure-in-fight-against-terrorism-a92592) News
6. [The Record: Russia blocks mobile internet for foreign SIM cards (October 2025)](https://therecord.media/russia-blocks-mobile-internet-foreign-sim-cards) News
7. [HSE University: SIM cards for foreign nationals](https://ifaculty.hse.ru/en/sim_cards) University
8. [Meduza: Putin signs law penalizing online searches for content deemed extremist (July 2025)](https://meduza.io/en/news/2025/07/31/putin-signs-law-penalizing-online-searches-for-content-deemed-extremist-by-russian-authorities) News
9. [Human Rights Watch: Russia clamps down on online searches (July 2025)](https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/07/24/russia-clamps-down-on-online-searches) Rights group
10. [Vomhoff et al.: Challenges and Opportunities for Global Cellular Connectivity (2024)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.19706) Research
11. [Motallebighomi et al.: eSIMplicity or eSIMplification? Privacy and Security Risks in the eSIM Ecosystem (USENIX Security 2025)](https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity25/presentation/motallebighomi) Research
12. [IETF RFC 6238: TOTP, the Time-Based One-Time Password Algorithm](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6238) Standard
13. [UK FCDO: Russia travel advice, safety and security](https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/russia/safety-and-security) Travel advice

Checked on 1 November 2026. Government, regulator and travel-advice pages come first where they exist; news outlets and research cover what officials don’t publish, such as which services are blocked. This page explains the situation; it isn’t legal advice.

## Know whether it’s the network, the country or you

Kilobat is a Mac menu-bar app that checks your own line, the Wi-Fi sign-in page and the service’s status page, guards a hotspot’s data and reports on every call.

[Download for Mac ↓](https://kilobat.app/downloads/Kilobat-1.31.1.dmg?via=site)

```
brew install seifip/kilobat/kilobat
```

## More countries

- [China](https://kilobat.app/travel/china): Google, WhatsApp and many Western sites are blocked; Wi-Fi often asks for a Chinese number.
- [United Arab Emirates](https://kilobat.app/travel/united-arab-emirates): Messaging works, but WhatsApp calls don’t; internet calls need a licensed or approved app.
- [Turkey](https://kilobat.app/travel/turkey): Most tools work, but Discord is blocked, social media can be throttled, and phones need IMEI registration.
- [India](https://kilobat.app/travel/india): Most tools work, but regional internet shutdowns are common, and satellite phones require prior permission.
- [Vietnam](https://kilobat.app/travel/vietnam): Most tools work, but Telegram is blocked and cable faults slow foreign sites several times a year.