Since June 9, 2025, Russian internet service providers (ISPs) have been aggressively throttling access to websites and services protected by Cloudflare, significantly degrading or outright blocking connectivity for Russian users to a large portion of the global web. This action is widely understood to be a state-level initiative, with major ISPs such as Rostelecom, Megafon, Vimpelcom, MTS, and MGTS implementing the restrictions.
How the Throttling Works
ISPs are limiting the amount of data that can be downloaded from Cloudflare-protected sites to just 16 kilobytes per connection. This cap is so low that most modern websites cannot function, as they typically require much more data to load properly. The throttling affects all major internet protocols, including older standards like HTTP/1.1 and newer, encrypted ones such as HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 (QUIC), as well as traditional TCP and TLS connections. After the first 10–14 packets (about 16 KB of data), the connection is abruptly severed. To users, this often appears as if a site is simply slow or broken, but in reality, the connection is being deliberately cut off.
Impact and Intent
The 16 KB cap renders most modern, media-rich websites nearly unusable, while only allowing the most basic, lightweight sites to function. While Cloudflare is the primary target, similar throttling is reported for other Western internet service providers like Hetzner, DigitalOcean, and OVH.
The Russian government aims to disrupt the ecosystem of circumvention tools—such as VPNs and anti-censorship services like Psiphon—that rely on these providers, making it harder for users to bypass state censorship. The move is also seen as part of a broader strategy to push Russian businesses and organizations away from Western tech firms and toward domestic alternatives, despite the lack of equivalent Russian services and the increased vulnerability to cyberattacks.
Technical and Legal Context
Cloudflare has stated that it has not received any formal communication from the Russian government regarding these measures, but considers them part of the country’s broader effort to oust Western tech firms from the domestic market. Because the throttling is implemented at the ISP level, Cloudflare is unable to restore reliable access for Russian users through lawful means.
In addition to Cloudflare, Russian authorities have imposed mobile internet restrictions in over 30 regions, often justified as security measures but increasingly affecting areas far from conflict zones.
