A court in Novomoskovsk, Tula Oblast, Russia has handed down what legal observers are calling a precedent-setting sentence: for the first time in this jurisdiction, the use of a VPN service was recognized as an aggravating circumstance in a criminal case.
The case involved a 24-year-old resident of Tula Oblast who was sentenced in December to 20 months in a general-regime prison colony for an attempted drug purchase in large quantities. The defendant was caught in the act of retrieving drugs from a cache ("kladka") — a common method used in the Russian illicit drug market.
The key legal development in this case is how the defendant accessed the drug dealer's instructions: he used a VPN service to reach a website blocked in Russia, where he received the coordinates of the drug cache. The court specifically noted this and recognized VPN use as an aggravating factor in determining the severity of the sentence.
This appears to be the first documented case in Russia where VPN use itself — not any additional crime committed through it — was treated as a factor that worsened the criminal's legal position. Legal experts warn this could set a precedent for courts across Russia to view VPN use more punitively in cases where blocked resources were involved.
The development comes as Russian authorities escalate their anti-VPN campaign on multiple fronts: requiring businesses to detect VPN users, blocking VPN apps from app stores, and now potentially using VPN access as legal evidence of intent or premeditation in criminal proceedings.
Why this matters for VPN users: This case represents a significant escalation in Russia's approach to VPN use — moving from technical blocking toward criminalization in certain contexts. While VPN use for privacy and security remains legal in many jurisdictions, this Russian precedent signals how authoritarian legal systems can weaponize any association with circumvention tools. ASMO VPN users outside Russia can use the service freely; for users in Russia, awareness of the evolving legal landscape is critical.