- Samsung and Xiaomi have removed the Adguard VPN application from their official application stores in Russia at the government’s request
- Apple has already killed Adguard VPN in 2024, alongside At least 60 VPN applications
- More than 100 VPNs are not currently available in the Apple Store Apple, with 50 also unavailable in the Google Play Store
UPDATE: Adguard confirmed to Techradar that Xiaomi had also deleted its VPN application from its Russian app for Roskomnadzor on May 16, 2025, after publication. We modify the article to reflect this.
However, another VPN service has disappeared from official application stores in Russia.
This time, Samsung deleted the Adguard VPN application of its Galaxy App Store in the country at the request of Roskomnadzor.
A day after, on May 16, 2025, the Xiaomi technology giant also did the same, killing the VPN application of the supplier of its Russian app store after receiving a referral order from the country to censor from the country.
This is one of the actions of the Kremlin against VPNs which have seen more than 100 applications disappear from the Apple Russian App Store, including some of the best VPN services on the market.
Although Google apparently resists most of these requests so far, recent data show that at least 53 VPNs are also currently not available in Google Play Store in Russia. Adguard VPN, however, has not yet been affected.
“Regrettable development”
“Our application was indeed withdrawn from the Samsung store in Russia – a regrettable development, in our opinion,” Adguard CPO, Denis Vyazovoy, told Techradar.
The VPN service has received a Samsung synthetic email (see image below) to inform that its “application information has been modified”.
Change? “Russia has been excluded from the lists of countries of sale according to the Russian government’s request. This application is prohibited by the Russian government,” said email.
Xiaomi has sent a similar communication to the supplier (see the image below), noting that “the distribution of VPN applications in Russia is not allowed. Therefore, we must delete your application from Russia”.
ADGUARD VPN was already one of the virtual private network services (VPN) affected by the Grande purge of the Apple App Store in Russia last year. Unavailable applications also include some of Techradar’s favorites, such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Proton VPN, but also the popular Russian service Amnezia VPN.
The supplier confirmed to Techradar, however, that its application is always available in the Google Play Store of Russia when writing the editorial’s moment.
It should also be noted that these eliminations only affect Russia users. The ADGUARD VPN application is always available in all official application stores outside Russia.
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“We see this as part of a broader trend in the restriction of access to tools that help people protect their privacy and maintain access to an open internet,” Vyazovoy told Techradar.
The actions of the Kremlin against VPNs have intensified since a law applied in March 2024 criminalized the propagation of information on the means of bypassing the restrictions on the Internet. This is probably the legal basis on which the Russian censorship organization issues these requests to large technological companies.
However, experts have long called on these companies to maintain the human rights of Russian citizens by refraining from cooperating with these requests and restoring censored VPN applications.
Vyazovoy has confirmed to Techradar that the service continues to operate via other channels and that the supplier is actively looking for ways to remain accessible to all users.
If you use a Galaxy or Xiaomi smartphone, I recommend that you download the Adguard VPN application from Google Play Store, where the service is always available at the time of writing.
The supplier also suggests downloading it directly from their official website to be sure to get the most recent and safest version.
