Figma and Notion not working in Russia: what is restricted and what to do

Notion stopped letting in users from Russia in September 2024, and a VPN, the company says, won’t help. Figma is gentler: it has not frozen accounts that are not under sanctions, but paid plans are off the table for new customers, and in late May 2026 the site would not open for some users. Below: both services’ rules, our October 10 test, and how to keep your files.

Why Notion doesn’t work in Russia

In its help article “Restrictions for customers based in Russia,” Notion explains that the US government has introduced restrictions prohibiting access to certain software products and services for any person in Russia. Because of that, since September 9, 2024, Notion has not provided access to the platform for users located in Russia.

• Workspaces with Russian billing. If a workspace’s billing information is currently or was ever associated with Russia, the workspace is terminated and the subscription ends. Updating the billing information does not change this.
• Workspaces without Russian billing. These are not terminated, but members located in Russia cannot access them. Content shared with those members is not deleted.
• After leaving the country. Users of workspaces that were never billed from Russia regain access once they are outside the country. Someone who has left and no longer uses Russian billing information may be able to create a new account.
• API. Automated systems operating from Russia cannot connect to the Notion API.

Notion left Russia because of a US Treasury determination of June 12, 2024, “Prohibition on Certain Information Technology and Software Services”: the service’s help article links to that document. Since September 12, 2024, IT consultancy and design services, as well as support and cloud-based services for enterprise management software and for design and manufacturing software, may not be supplied from the United States or by US persons to anyone located in Russia. Notion’s help article adds that the restrictions apply to a broad range of US enterprise software, including product management, business intelligence, CRM and others.

What about Figma: accounts, plans and payment

Figma responded to the sanctions back on March 9, 2022: a statement by CEO Dylan Field said the company was complying fully with US and EU sanctions against Russia and stopping all new sales efforts in the country. The current rules are set out in the help article “What’s Figma’s policy for customers in Russia and Belarus?”.

• Accounts. Figma has restricted access only for accounts under US, UK or EU sanctions; for other customers in Russia, the company says, access has not been frozen or restricted.
• Paid plans. Figma does not offer paid services to new customers located in Russia, including upgrades from the free Starter plan to a paid one.
• Payment. There are no payment arrangements for Russia, including for payments that failed because of the suspension of Visa and Mastercard services. Support cannot extend due dates, issue refunds, or accept wire transfers or cryptocurrency.

It is also worth knowing a clause of Figma’s Terms of Service in the version effective March 11, 2026: the company may take measures required to comply with sanctions rules, up to suspending access, terminating the agreement and blocking files. If the agreement is terminated for a breach of that clause, Figma may immediately delete the account’s content.

Figma won’t open: what happened in 2025 and 2026

Figma outages from Russia have also happened without any official restrictions. On March 20, 2025, a user from the Urals wrote on the Figma forum that the app and the website showed error -101. A reply marked Figmate on April 1 said engineers had found a connection issue with internet providers in that region; it also suggested checking whether other sites load, trying a different connection, and turning off any VPN or proxy that was on.

On May 30, 2026, a question appeared on the same forum about many reports that Figma’s page would not load from Russia without a proxy or VPN. A staff member replied the next day that they could not go into specifics about access or network details on the forum and suggested contacting support. The same day, the Russian outlet Men Today wrote about complaints from 19 cities, more than 2,200 in a day, and an error with code 101; according to the outlet, there was no information from Roskomnadzor, Russia’s internet regulator.

Our test on October 10, 2026

Globalping probes requested the home pages of www.figma.com and www.notion.com, and we also queried them straight from our server abroad, with no VPN connection. JavaScript is not run by the measuring tool, it reads only the beginning of the page, and we did not sign in to any accounts.

The home pages of both services opened from Russia. For Notion this is expected: the restriction applies to signing in to workspaces, not to the website, and our test cannot show it. For Figma, the test only tells us that on the evening of October 10 the home page responded to five Russian probes; we did not test signing in or the editor.

How to save your files and what to switch to

• Exporting from Notion. If you still have access, you can export a page to PDF, HTML or Markdown, a database to CSV (as well as PDF or HTML), and an entire workspace to HTML, Markdown and CSV. PDF together with subpages is available only on the Business and Enterprise plans.
• A local copy in Figma. You can save files to your computer in Figma’s formats (.fig, .jam, .deck and others). Anyone with view access can do this unless the file owner has restricted copying. Version history and comments are not included in the copy.
• Penpot. An open-source design tool: signing up is free, and you can also install it on your own server.
• One user’s move away from Notion. An author at T—Zh, a Russian personal finance outlet, who moved in September 2024, exported about a thousand pages (3.4 GB) within a day and chose Anytype. The import there broke off near the end three times, and she had to add some media files by hand.

When a foreign address makes sense, and when it doesn’t

For Notion, it doesn’t. Notion says plainly that impacted users will not be able to access it using a VPN, and we do not advise trying: your workspace and data are at stake. For Figma, a foreign address changes neither the account’s status nor the payment rules. It may only help if figma.com won’t open on your network, as happened to some users in May 2026, and remember that Figma’s terms allow it to suspend access to comply with sanctions rules.

You can check Figma from a foreign address for free: Liberum VPN has Dutch, German and Georgian locations and a 7-day trial with no card. Launch the Liberum VPS bot, activate the trial access, pick a foreign country, import the subscription link into a client (Happ will do), turn the connection on and go to figma.com. Everyone on a location uses its one address. We did not open Figma itself through the Liberum VPN connection this time, since our test ran without it, so there are no guarantees. Prices and the list of countries are on the home page, and the legal side of VPNs in Russia is in a separate article.

What we don’t promise

• That Notion will work through a VPN. Notion says plainly that impacted users will not be able to access it that way.
• That Figma will open through our location. We only looked at the home page, through Globalping probes and from our own server without a VPN, and did not open the site through the Liberum VPN connection itself.
• That you will be able to buy a paid Figma plan. Figma does not sell paid services to new customers in Russia, and Russian-issued Visa cards do not work abroad.
• That your account won’t be restricted. Figma’s terms allow it to suspend access and block files, and, if the agreement is terminated for breaching the export control rules, to delete them.
• That the address will belong to you only. Every customer of a location goes online through it.

Key takeaways

• Notion cut off access from Russia on September 9, 2024, because of US sanctions.
• Figma has restricted only sanctioned accounts, but it does not sell paid plans to new customers in Russia.
• On October 10, 2026, the Figma and Notion home pages opened from Russian networks.
• You can export data from Notion only where your access remains; local copies of Figma files are worth saving in advance.
• For Figma, you can test a foreign address for free for 7 days; for Notion, according to Notion itself, a VPN won’t help.