What streaming works in Russia — 2026 status with most Western services gone

Updated 2026-04-24

TL;DR

Russia's streaming market collapsed after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Netflix exited March 2022, Spotify closed April 2022, Disney+ never officially launched, and Apple TV+ / HBO Max etc. also left or froze service. What remains are Russian-domestic platforms: Yandex's Kinopoisk Plus and Yandex Music, VK Video (VK group), Okko (Sber-owned), IVI, and Premier. Meta family (Instagram/Facebook) was designated 'extremist' and blocked. Twitch is partially restricted. Network access tools used to bypass blocks became legally risky in 2024 and were further criminalized 2025-09-01 (when used to access blocked content). Telegram MTProto proxies still work in some scenarios.

✓ Available

MTProto proxies work, main messaging app

YouTube Premium

YouTube heavily throttled but not blocked; Premium not billed to RU

TikTok

Upload restricted, read-only still works

X (Twitter)

Throttled but not blocked

Only Meta product not banned

Discord

Partial block since 2024-10, requires overseas exit

ChatGPT

OpenAI doesn't serve RU, overseas exit required

Claude

Anthropic doesn't serve RU, overseas exit required

Perplexity

Restricted; works via overseas exit

Binance

Limited under SDN sanctions, some features work

OKX

Major exchange used by RU users

Bybit

Continues operating in RU

✗ Not available / Restricted

Never officially launched

Apple TV+

Apple Pay + subscriptions halted

HBO Max

WBD exited RU market

Instagram

Designated extremist + blocked March 2022

Facebook

Banned alongside Instagram March 2022

Blocked since Nov 2016 (data residency law)

Twitch

Selective restrictions, streamers banned

Tips

Inside Russia, legal exposure for accessing blocked Western platforms is significantly higher than in other countries. As of 2024, tools used to bypass blocks are illegal-ish in Russia; from 2025-09-01, deliberately searching for or accessing 'extremist' content is prosecutable regardless of how you reached it. There's almost no legitimate reason to route exit traffic to Russia — Yandex/VK accept registrations without an RU IP. Telegram MTProto proxies are the main bypass tool inside Russia, but flagged search terms can still get accounts reported. AI tools (ChatGPT/Claude) refuse RU IPs — users must route through a non-RU exit node.