- Apple has removed DVPN from its App Store at Russia’s request
- Norse Labs’ decentralized VPN was among Apple’s top free VPN -Apps
- Over 100 VPNs are currently not available in Russian apple App Store, with at least 60 apps killed since July last year
Earlier today, on April 17, 2025, the founder and CEO of Norse Labs, Aleksandr Litrev, received a review from Apple that its decentralized VPN app was removed per year. Roskomnadzor’s requirements “because it includes content illegal in Russia.”
The Norse Lab’s DVPN app has gained tremendous popularity recently across the country and ranked # 3 among Apple’s top free apps before the block – reported the provider. It adds over 100 VPNs, including some of the best VPNs on the market, currently not available in Russia’s Apple App Store.
Apple continues to kill popular Russia VPNs
“Just hours ago, Apple removed our Norse Lab’s DVPN app from the Russian app store -without any valid court decision -at the request of Roskomnadzor, the government’s censorship agency,” Litreev announced in an X post on Thursday morning.
A popular free VPN -App especially for Russian Apple TV, MAC and iPad users, DVPN is a decentralized VPN service of Norse Labs, which depends on a global network of independent nodes rather than centralized VPN servers.
This feature, the provider explains on his official website, should make it much harder for governments or ISPs to block access to the service. It then promises not only better privacy and security, but also stronger censorship bypassing skills – exactly what is needed to bypass Roskomnadzor’s internet blocks that are currently in place.
A Russian activist and IT engineer, Litreev is a well-known opposition figure in Russia involved in Alexei Navalny’s movement. In 2020, he managed to flee to Estonia and escape trial.
Since then, he has worked in the decentralized VPN room to offer privacy and antiques surge solutions to help people in Russia, China, Venezuela and other countries that enforce strong control on the national Internet.
“Ensuring secure and free access to independent media is a fundamental duty of any democratic power in the fight for human rights, and Apple chose the wrong side,” Litreev said.
Just a few hours ago, @APPLE removed our @norselabs DVPN -App from the Russian App Store – without a valid court decision – at the request of Roskomnadzor, the government’s censurer.April 17, 2025
Norse Labs is only the latest victim of Roskomnadzor’s crusade against VPN.
VPN censorship efforts were intensified in 2024 when a law enforced in March began to criminalize the spread of information on ways of bypassing Internet restrictions. This is probably the legal basis on which the Russian censorship organizes these requests.
In 2024 alone, it turned out that Apple had killed at least 60 VPN apps in this way, bringing the total amount to 98 VPN inaccessible apps in September. These include some of Techradar’s favorites such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Protonvpn.
The current toll is expected to be even higher, especially considering that another popular Russian VPN, Amnezia VPN, reportedly disappeared from the country’s App Store at the end of October and became the last target of Russia’s anti-VPN actions in 2024.
While Apple seems to have been largely in line with Russia’s orders so far, Google Play has also been targeted at similar requests for removal.
According to Appcentroship’s latest data, Google received 212 VPN blocking orders between March and April 2025. Among these, however, only 6 apps appeared to have been removed so far, which brought the total number of inaccessible VPN services on Russia’s Google Play Store to 53.
How to continue to download inaccessible VPNs
Litreev made sure that all users who have already downloaded the Norse Labs DVPN app before its removal knows that the app they have downloaded is not at risk.
“The app will continue to work despite the Russian government’s attempt to block it,” he said.
In case you haven’t downloaded it yet, you can still do so by changing your App Store region to any other country. The DVPN app remains available globally.
Another alternative is to use the DVPN mini-app version that the provider has launched on Telegram. This will remain functional as long as Telegram does, explains Litreev.
“While we are working on a tool to help our Russian users bypass this absurd limitation and install the app directly, we also assess our options for litigation,” he added.
