What whitelists are
Since 2025, mobile internet in Russian regions is restricted more and more often, usually under a drone threat: instead of a full shutdown, the network switches to a whitelist. The Ministry of Digital Development decides what must keep working: public services, banks, the large marketplaces, social networks and mail from Russian companies. Everything else goes dark — foreign sites, messengers, an ordinary VPN.
It is blocking turned inside out: whatever is not allowed is banned. The operators filter by lists of addresses, so the list can differ a little between operators and regions. Home broadband usually keeps working as before.
Why an ordinary VPN does not help
A VPN connects to its own server abroad, and that server's address is not on the list. Encryption does not help: what decides is not what the traffic carries but where it goes. So a VPN that worked in the morning stops connecting by lunchtime, though no one targeted it.
How Pingle gets through a whitelist
If the network only lets through connections to allowed addresses, the traffic has to go there. The Pingle client notices the whitelist and moves to a route of two links:
An entry inside the list
An entry point on infrastructure the operator lets through. To the network it is an ordinary encrypted connection to an allowed address.
An exit to the open internet
From there, on to a Pingle location beyond the restrictions and from it to the site you want.
There is nothing to switch by hand: when the restrictions are lifted, the client goes back to its ordinary connection on its own.
Listed services, directly
Automatic routing stays: services on the whitelist — public services, your bank, a marketplace — the client opens directly, and only what is otherwise out of reach takes the bypass. So what is allowed spends no extra traffic and looks nothing out of the ordinary. More on how routing works.
- gosuslugi.ruOn the list
- youtube.comStopped
- Pingle · RUyoutube.comVia Pingle
Honestly, about guarantees
Whitelists are a race: operators update their lists, cloud providers are required to keep allowed services' addresses apart from everyone else's, and a method that works today may stop tomorrow. No one can guarantee a connection under every restriction, and neither can we. What we promise is to follow the restrictions and update the route as fast as we can — with nothing to reconfigure on your side.
If mobile service is cut off entirely, there is nothing to get around: without a network, no app works.
What it costs
Whitelist bypass is part of the client, not an add-on: every plan has it.
The full terms, including opt-in Extra Usage at $0.20 per GB, are on the pricing page. The apps are not out yet: leave your contact to hear when they are.