if you want to use it in its original purpose it’s illegal. If you use a vpn not registered with Roskomnadzor, it’s illegal because you can access stuff that putin does not want you to see.
therefore using a vpn with its normal purpose to create your private tunnel and access what you want is in fact illegal in russia.
In November 2017, the Russian government passed a law banning the use of VPNs, Tor, and proxies to access unauthorized content. Since that time, it has been used to restrict specific VPN services.
The ban targets VPN providers who refuse to submit data to the Russian government. The threat of bans came in 2019. Two waves of bans followed in 2021, covering 15 VPNs. Only one Russia-based provider is known to have complied with the rules.
https://surfshark.com/blog/vpn-in-russia
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-internet-idUSKBN1AF0QI
I see! So, to quote the sources you provided:
“Despite widespread speculation, the law does not directly ban the operation of VPNs and anonymisers. However, it does restrict access to banned websites with the help of these tools.”
I.e. the VPN providers themselves are not illegal, though the VPN providers technically have to not allow users to access content listed by rospotrebnadzor. That’s responsibility on the side of the providers, not a ban on use. Practically speaking it still is attempting to censor content, but neither of the three sources claim that VPN use is illegal in Russia.
IIRC Pakistan also do this (vpn is blocked by default and you’ll need to submit documentation to justify using VPN if you want to use VPN in your company), though their main reason is to reduce VoIP spammers.
