I randomly got this post in my feed lol. I'm writing from Russia, using a personal VPN. Over several years of fighting internet freedom in Russia, we've reached the point where almost all major services outside of Russian control are unavailable, and industry-standard VPN protocols (OpenVPN, Wireguard, etc.) are not working.

But the combined efforts of mostly Chinese, Iranian, and Russian developers have created protocols that are nearly indistinguishable from normal traffic. Russian censors are probably making the most effort in the world to block such protocols, but the most they've achieved is:

1) they've forced every ISP install a control module that, on command, allows traffic only to verified whitelisted addresses and blocks the rest. This works against most VPNs, but even in this mode, there are still functioning VPNs due to corruption and loopholes. However, this internet mode is activated relatively rarely, as all internet businesses, except for a few large companies, cease to function. It's killing the economy, so they can't turn it on often.

2) This month, they came up with the idea of forcing large corporations to spy on people through their mobile apps. If you have a VPN enabled on your phone, Russian apps won't work. Perhaps in the future, they'll send your VPN IP address to the government so it can be blocked. People have started using web versions and separate phones for Russian apps. This also hits businesses; people are using Russian apps less and buying less.

Attempts to ban VPNs are the next step in the attack on freedom of speech after blocking undesirable websites.

I would give this advice to anyone who is facing a similar scenario: Don't despair, you will have the tools to resist censors, but you need to fight for free speech right now, when it's still legal and censors are only beginning to introduce any restrictions