8 min read
Armenia, Georgia and Serbia don't block social networks or messengers: in the Freedom on the Net 2025 reports, all three countries have "no" next to social media blocking and connectivity restrictions. The difficulties for relocants come from the other side. Since April 2026, Russian banks, Gosuslugi and online cinemas have been cutting off users with a VPN on, some services only work in certain countries, and a Russian SIM card in roaming brings Russian blocks along with it.
So in Georgia and Armenia a VPN is hardly needed for the local internet, and for Russian services it more often gets in the way. It's useful for privacy on public Wi-Fi and for services closed to these countries.
Almost nothing an ordinary person uses. Telegram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram and X open without a VPN in all three countries. In Armenia, the blocks mainly hit unlicensed online casinos.
| Armenia | Georgia | Serbia | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freedom on the Net 2025 status | Free, 72 out of 100 | Free, 70 out of 100 | Partly Free, 67 out of 100 |
| Score a year earlier | 74 | 74 | 70 (Free) |
| Social media blocking | No | No | No |
| Connectivity restrictions by the authorities | No | No | No |
| What is blocked | Unlicensed gambling sites | Blocking is limited | Blocking is limited |
| Kinopoisk subscription | Works | Works | Doesn't work |
| Okko (films and series) | Works | Doesn't work | Doesn't work |
| Max registration with a local number | Possible | Possible | Not possible |
| Gosuslugi via missions abroad (experiment) | Yes | No | Yes |
In Armenia, from February 8, 2027, telecom operators will be required to block unlicensed gambling and lottery sites. Yogonet reported this on September 8, 2026, citing Armenpress and the State Revenue Committee.
For local sites and social networks, no. A VPN is needed in three cases: working on open Wi-Fi in cafés and coworking spaces, services that don't work in your country due to licensing, and your employer's corporate requirements.
"Turning on a VPN just in case" only adds problems with Russian apps here. If you keep your VPN on all the time, set up split tunneling: your bank and Gosuslugi will go directly, and everything else through the protected channel. A VPN as such isn't banned in these countries: we found no rules in open sources that would punish private individuals for using one.
As a rule they do, if the VPN is off. According to ATOR data cited by vc.ru on April 21, 2026, there are no problems accessing Russian resources in CIS countries. On April 27, 2026, the Ministry of Digital Development explained to Expert that services restrict users specifically with a VPN on, and foreign traffic may be closed briefly only during major DDoS attacks. The bank is covered in detail in why Sberbank Online won't open abroad.
Here's how it works. Since mid-April 2026, Russian services check whether a VPN is on on the device. RKS Global experts, according to Radio Liberty on April 27, 2026, found such a check in 22 of 30 popular Russian apps, including Sberbank and T-Bank. Judging by this data, a local IP usually doesn't bother the bank, but a VPN that's on does. How apps detect it we covered in how apps detect a VPN, and what to do if your bank refuses you, in bank refuses access with a VPN.
A Belgrade resident told Business FM on April 16, 2026 that he logs in to the Gosuslugi app over Serbian mobile data without problems, and with a VPN he sees a warning, but the app still opens.
From July 1, 2026 to the end of 2027 an experiment is running: some public services are provided through Russian Foreign Ministry and Rossotrudnichestvo missions in 12 countries. Armenia and Serbia are on the list, Georgia is not (NEWS.ru, 23.06.2026).
Here the line is drawn by licenses and country lists, and Serbia is on them less often.
A VPN doesn't reliably get around these restrictions. Since April 2026, online cinemas themselves reject connections via VPN, and Kinopoisk's help pages state directly that the service doesn't guarantee it will work with a VPN. What else you can do is collected in Kinopoisk abroad.
Because roaming traffic goes through the Russian operator. On May 14, 2026, Meduza explained: most operators use the S8 Home Routing scheme, in which a visiting subscriber's data first goes back to the home operator and only then reaches the internet.
As a result, in Yerevan or Tbilisi a phone on a Russian SIM lives by Russian rules: Instagram is blocked, and outages with Telegram, WhatsApp and YouTube, as Meduza writes, "don't go away". You can't switch the roaming scheme in your phone's settings; more on this in why WhatsApp and Telegram don't work in roaming. The solution is simple: a local SIM or eSIM for internet and the Russian SIM for calls and SMS. If bank codes arrive with a delay, see why SMS don't arrive abroad.
Internet freedom scores fell for all three countries, but this hasn't affected access to sites so far. It's about pressure on people and media, not about blocks.
In the Freedom on the Net 2025 report (published October 23, 2025, covering June 2024 – May 2025), Georgia shared second place for the size of decline among all 72 countries: from 74 to 70 points. The reasons: the law on "transparency of foreign influence", which required online media with foreign funding to register, amendments under which insulting officials can bring up to 45 days of administrative arrest, and rising threats to journalists. Internet access itself, according to the report, remains good.
Serbia dropped from 70 to 67 points and lost its Free status. The triggers were detentions of users for posts about the protests after the collapse of the railway station canopy in Novi Sad and surveillance of journalists using spyware. Armenia dropped from 74 to 72 and remained in the Free group.
In these countries a VPN is needed not to get around censorship but for flexibility: to protect your traffic on public Wi-Fi without breaking Russian apps. BessyConnect runs on VLESS with Reality camouflage, so the traffic looks like ordinary HTTPS. There are more than 100 servers, no logs, no required registration, no device limit, and there's a trial period. Which server to choose for the task we covered in which country to choose in a VPN.
If your Apple ID is still Russian, keep in mind: the app isn't in the Russian App Store, you need an Apple ID from another country.
What a VPN won't solve. It won't bring Kinopoisk back in Serbia and won't make your bank let you in with a VPN on: for such apps it's better to turn it off. It won't help pay for subscriptions with a Russian card where it isn't accepted, and it's useless if the internet is shut down entirely. Blocks on a Russian SIM are better solved with a local SIM card than with a VPN on top of roaming.
Do I need a VPN in Georgia? For local sites and messengers, no: Freedom House records no social media blocks in Georgia. A VPN is useful on open Wi-Fi and for services closed to this country.
Does Sberbank Online work in Armenia? Usually yes, if the VPN is off. According to ATOR data from April 2026, there are no problems with Russian services in CIS countries, and Sberbank restricts login specifically when a VPN is on.
Does Kinopoisk work in Serbia? No. According to Kinopoisk's help pages, the subscription works in nine countries, including Armenia and Georgia, and Serbia isn't among them.
Why won't YouTube load in Tbilisi on a Russian SIM? In roaming, traffic goes through the Russian operator, so Russian restrictions apply. A local SIM or eSIM for mobile internet helps.
Is it legal to use a VPN in Armenia, Georgia and Serbia? We found no bans on personal VPN use in these countries. Liability for the posts themselves, however, is determined by local laws regardless of how you connect.
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