A couple of weeks ago, I launched "Reverse VPN" – a VPN with a Russian IP for accessing websites that are unavailable from abroad. I've already been contacted by more than 1,000 people. I was able to help most of them. A huge thank you to everyone for the donations and kind words!

Why is it needed?

Since the mobilization began, according to various sources, between 300,000 and 1 million people have left Russia. If we add the previous wave of emigration, we get a significant number of people who have problems accessing important Russian websites.

From abroad, Gosuslugi, the Russian Railways website, the tax service website, mos.ru, and even Sberbank sometimes don't work.

People can't pay utility bills and fines, get a tax refund, view the cadastral map, or access the Moscow court website. Some can't connect to their work VPN.

A VPN with a Russian IP solves this problem. But many popular global VPN services no longer have servers in Russia or are blocked. So Surfshark, NordVPN, and ProtonVPN won't help here.

How does the service work?

I made a landing page on Notion with a form on NotionForms and published it via Super. The data from the forms goes into a special database in Notion.

Every request is moderated – I really don't want anonymous users doing nefarious things from my IP addresses and me ending up being the one to blame. At this stage, about 18% of requests are rejected.

For verified users, personalized keys are generated for the OpenVPN servers (there are 11 of them now). Every evening after work, I send out emails with keys for the requests that have accumulated throughout the day. Usually, it's 50-100 emails.

I'm gradually trying to improve all stages and automate operations. In the near future, I want to reduce the time it takes for a client to receive a key from several hours to a few minutes. After all, people often need a VPN "right now".

Feedback

I've received a lot of thank-you messages. They really energize me! Especially when people write a little more detail about their situation. Here are a few examples so you can feel the energy)

Thank you so much, it worked)

Thanks. Everything works. Sent you some coffee money)))

Now I can book a doctor's appointment for my mom on mos.ru while being outside of Russia. Thank you so much, Sergey!

Sergey, thank you very much! I've already recommended it to my friends, great service! Good luck to you!

It all worked out! Sergey, thank you so much, you've created something incredible that really helped me out. I'll definitely donate to you!

This is just super inspiring!

In the end, I added a service for reviews, so that not only I see them in private messages, but also other people who are hesitant.

If you use Reverse VPN, please leave a review there. It means a lot to me and will help other people)

The project is growing

Many people wrote not only thank-you messages but also suggestions/feature requests. Some wanted to watch Kinopoisk (some content is unavailable outside the Russian Federation). Others wanted a personal VPN server for themselves and their loved ones. Well, demand creates supply!

I added 2 new plans:

The free plan hasn't gotten worse; I monitor the load and add servers as needed. If you only need it for websites, go for it.

If you just need more speed, the "For Video" plan is ideal.

If you plan to share the key with loved ones or work through this VPN, you need a personal server.

WiFi Portal to Russia

Almost 20 people have approached me with this question:

How can I work from abroad if the corporate VPN is only accessible from Russian IP addresses?

You need the work VPN to "dive into" the "Reverse VPN". But a VPN-over-VPN setup is quite complex. An average IT person probably won't be able to configure it. However, there is a solution.

You can buy a router that supports OpenVPN Client (not a server, but specifically a client!) and add the key from "Reverse VPN" to it.

This will give you a WiFi network that provides a Russian internet connection. A sort of "portal to the RF". You can work as usual – connect to it from your work computer and enable only the work VPN on it. In this configuration, it will "dive into" the Reverse VPN.

Instead of a router, you can use a personal computer or phone as a WiFi hotspot. In that case, you also need to set up "Reverse VPN" on that device and connect to this hotspot from your work computer. Problems may arise here. The router option is more reliable.

Today I bought such a router and checked that everything works.

I will write a more detailed tutorial article soon.

Wishing you a smooth move and good luck!

P.S. If there are any information security experts here and you see any problems, please don't scold me in the comments. Write to me in a private message, and together we will make the service more secure.