Why X (Twitter) won’t open in Russia and what you can do about it

Your feed won’t refresh, and x.com keeps loading in the browser until the request times out: that is how X, formerly Twitter, has behaved on Russian networks for more than four years. We go through it in order: the legal basis for the block, what the rebrand changed, what our measurement showed, what the platform’s rules say about VPNs, and what you can try.

Why Twitter doesn’t work in Russia: the Prosecutor General’s and Roskomnadzor’s decision

On the evening of March 4, 2022, Roskomnadzor announced that access to twitter.com had been restricted in Russia. Interfax quoted the regulator: the basis was a demand by the Prosecutor General’s Office dated February 24, 2022. Izvestia named the legal provision: Article 15.3 of the Law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection,” under which access is blocked to websites with calls for mass unrest, extremist activity and participation in unauthorized mass events.

According to Roskomnadzor’s figures as retold by Izvestia, calls for unauthorized protests had been spreading on Twitter since the start of the military operation, and the platform had not removed 1055 such posts. Another 268 posts about Russian army losses in personnel and equipment, which the regulator considered false, had not been removed either; in total, since the start of 2022 it had counted 2550 prohibited posts on Twitter, of which 787 were still up. RIA Novosti added that Twitter had not complied with the “landing” law: by January 1, it had not opened a representative office in Russia or set up a feedback form for Russian users.

When Twitter was blocked, and what happened before and after

• March 10, 2021. Roskomnadzor began slowing Twitter down: according to TechCrunch, all mobile traffic and about half of desktop users. The regulator cited more than 3000 undeleted prohibited posts and threatened a complete block.
• March 1, 2022. Roskomnadzor announced that it had begun slowing the platform down, this time over “false socially significant information” about the military operation in Ukraine (RTVI).
• March 4, 2022. Access was restricted on a Prosecutor General’s Office demand dated February 24. The regulator also posted the restriction in its block-checking service (Interfax).
• December 13, 2022. State Duma deputy Anton Tkachev proposed checking whether Twitter’s policy had changed after Elon Musk bought it. The regulator’s press office replied: “There are no grounds for unblocking the resource in question” (RTVI, citing TASS).
• July 2023. After the rebrand to X, Roskomnadzor stated: “The x.com domain currently redirects to the blocked twitter.com domain,” and repeated that there were no grounds for unblocking (iXBT, July 25, 2023).

As far as we could find, no one had announced the lifting of the restriction as of October 10, 2026. The redirect now runs the other way: twitter.com sends you to x.com, and, as our measurement showed, x.com barely opens on Russian networks either.

What 12 checks on October 10, 2026, showed: x.com is unavailable from Russian networks

The x.com home page was requested by Globalping probes: three measurements between 23:13 and 23:22 UTC, a total of 12 checks, including 10 from Russian networks. In addition, our server abroad contacted x.com and twitter.com directly, without a VPN connection. The measurement tool gives each response 15 seconds, executes no JavaScript and never logs in to an account.

All in all, one Russian check out of 10 received the X page, while every check abroad did. Not a single Russian probe received a page explaining the block: the request simply hung until the 15 seconds ran out. One success in a data center where, nine minutes earlier, a secure connection could not be established does not mean the restriction has been lifted there: a one-off measurement is no basis for judging specific networks.

What to do if X doesn’t work: options without a VPN

We found no way to bring x.com back on Russian networks without a VPN: neither Roskomnadzor nor X has reported one, and in our measurement 9 Russian checks out of 10 came to nothing. Still, there are a few useful things you can do.

• Don’t look for the cause in your device. In our measurement, the Russian probes hung before receiving the page, so wiping the cache, trying another browser or reinstalling the app probably won’t change anything.
• Stay away from unofficial “mirrors.” X’s terms allow you to use the service only through its published interfaces, and entering your X login and password on a third-party website is risky in itself.
• Keep inactivity in mind. Prolonged inactivity is one of the grounds on which X may remove an account (section 4 of the terms). The terms don’t say how long counts as prolonged.
• Follow Roskomnadzor’s statements. It was the regulator that announced the restriction and then repeatedly answered questions about unblocking; the latest statement we found dates from July 2023.

What X’s terms say about VPNs and account blocking

We read X’s Terms of Service as in force since October 9, 2026. The word VPN does not appear in them, and neither does a direct ban on logging in from a foreign address. But there are provisions worth knowing about in advance.

• Section 4, “Ending These Terms.” X may suspend or terminate an account if it believes you have violated its terms or rules, create risk or legal exposure for the company, or because of prolonged inactivity; where the law allows, for any reason or no reason at all.
• Section 4, “Misuse of the Services.” You may not access the service other than through X’s published interfaces, work around technical limitations in its software or circumvent security and authentication measures, nor may you use it to “send altered, deceptive or false source-identifying information” (item vi); X doesn’t specify whether this covers VPNs.
• A note on your profile. Since November 2025, X has shown the country or region where an account is based in its “About this account” section. If you log in through a VPN, a note may appear next to it: “Country or region may not be accurate” (Engadget, Vice). This is a note, not a block.

Opening X through a location abroad: a free week to test it

In our measurement, x.com opened in every check abroad, so a foreign address is what makes sense to test. Liberum VPN has locations in the Netherlands, Germany and Georgia and a 7-day trial that doesn’t require a card. The result is not guaranteed: we did not open x.com through a Liberum VPN connection, so it may work in your case, or it may not. What to do: message the Liberum VPS bot, activate the free trial, pick one of the countries abroad, copy the subscription link you receive into Happ or a similar app, start the connection and type in x.com. Everyone using a location shares its address. Prices and the country list can be found on the page Liberum VPN: VPN locations abroad and prices.

What we don’t promise

• That your account won’t be blocked. X’s terms (section 4, “Ending These Terms”) allow an account to be suspended or terminated, without giving a reason where the law allows, and logging in through a VPN may get your profile a note saying your country may be inaccurate.
• That x.com will open through our location. The X page was received by Globalping probes in Dutch and German data centers and by our server abroad, but we did not connect to x.com through Liberum VPN ourselves.
• That the app, login and posting will work. Our measurement covered only the x.com home page.
• That the connection won’t drop. VPN services themselves also fall under Roskomnadzor’s restrictions: 469 of them as of the end of February 2026, according to the regulator as reported by ComNews. Why this happens is explained in our article why VPNs stop working over time.
• That the block will be lifted soon. The latest Roskomnadzor statement on X that we found dates from July 2023, and it was about the absence of grounds for unblocking. What Russian rules say about VPNs themselves is covered in our explainer is using a VPN legal in Russia.

Key takeaways

• On March 4, 2022, access to Twitter was restricted by Roskomnadzor, acting on the Prosecutor General’s demand of February 24; the legal provision is Article 15.3 of the Law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection.”
• The regulator first began slowing the platform down back on March 10, 2021.
• In 2022 and 2023, Roskomnadzor stated that there were no grounds for unblocking, including after the rebrand to X.
• On October 10, 2026, x.com opened in one Russian check out of 10 and in every check abroad.
• X’s terms are silent on VPNs but allow accounts to be closed; whether x.com opens through a Liberum VPN location abroad can be checked during a free one-week trial.