Crypto portals land on the chopping as Russia looks at AI tools to block prohibited sites

Russian regulators’ decision to employ artificial intelligence (AI) to censor content on the Internet is likely to affect cryptocurrency users in the country.

The move may limit access to foreign digital asset exchanges and mining pools in the future, if Moscow makes good on its promise to legalize domestic services.

Russian telecom watchdog to spend over 2 billion rubles on AI tools

The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, better known as Roskomnadzor (RKN), intends to use machine learning technology to analyze and restrict traffic to banned websites, the local press revealed.

According to a recent report by the Russian-language edition of Forbes, the agency intends to allocate nearly 2.3 billion rubles (over $29 million) for the development of AI tools needed for the task.

The investment is part of the telecom watchdog’s continuous efforts to constantly update and improve a system designed to prevent Russians from accessing online content prohibited by their government.

The agency has been particularly active in targeting attempts to circumvent its restrictions using virtual private networks (VPNs).

In 2025 alone, the RKN blocked almost 260 VPN services by October, a marked increase over the previous year, as well as 1.2 million websites, 50% more than in 2024.

According to crypto industry watchers, interviewed by the Russian business news portal RBC, the strengthening of these measures could result in interrupted access to foreign-based crypto platforms, including trading venues, mining pools and sources of information.

While the experts believe it’s still early to worry about it, they admit that the comprehensive regulations for the digital currency space, expected to be adopted in the first half of 2026, may certainly change that.

Towards the end of a pivotal year, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) proposed in late December a new regulatory concept for the nation’s crypto market.

According to a published excerpt, traditional exchanges, brokers and trustees will be permitted to process crypto transactions under their existing licenses, while specialized crypto exchanges and depositories will have to meet a separate set of specific requirements to obtain authorization.

What will be the consequences of Roskomnadzor’s venture into AI?

The RKN’s database of blacklisted sites does not currently contain critical entries for the Russian crypto community, noted Nikita Zuborev, senior analyst at Bestchange.ru.

However, he acknowledged that the blocking of such platforms is possible in the future, especially after Russian authorities legalize domestic exchanges.

Once that happens, trading venues that are not registered or licensed in the country may cease to be available until they are cleared by Russian regulators.

Bestchange.ru, which is a popular crypto exchange aggregator in Russia and the region, has been taken offline by the RKN on more than one occasion over the past few years.

Online traffic is already being filtered in Russia through so-called threat-countering measures implemented by internet providers.

Introducing AI technologies will likely increase the accuracy and speed of detection of mirror domains and services that help to bypass the restrictions, suggested Anton Gontarev, commercial director for Intelion, a major Russian operator of data processing centers.

Last month, Roskomnadzor updated the equipment deployed by Russian telecom networks to improve the prevention of VPNs, after accusing more than 30 providers of permitting unfiltered traffic earlier last year and later fining some of them.

Gontarev elaborated that this would lead to increasingly unstable access to certain foreign-based elements of the crypto infrastructure, such as exchanges, analytical platforms, and API services, especially if they are tied to commonly available VPN solutions.

Crypto mining, which was legalized in Russia in late 2024, will not be affected as much, highlighted the representative of the Russian coin minting giant, explaining:

While Russian authorities intend to expand access to cryptocurrencies with the upcoming rules, investments will be capped at 300,000 rubles a year (a little over $3,800) for non-qualified investors.

Many ordinary Russians are currently using the services of major exchanges like Bybit. The blocking of such platforms will depend on how the proposed regulations are implemented, remarked the crypto market analyst Viktor Pershikov.

While foreign crypto exchanges popular with Russian users may be allowed to maintain a presence, it’s also possible to see market access limited only to Russian companies, he commented.

One reason for that would be their failure to comply with local data protection rules, he added, as these platforms are obtaining and keeping the personal information of Russian citizens on servers located abroad, in the EU or the U.S., Pershikov explained.

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