Banned in
Russia
A surveillance state just reviewed our VPN and decided its citizens shouldn’t have it. We consider that a five-star rating.
On June 22, 2026, Russia’s federal censor ordered Citadel VPN & WiFi Security pulled from the Russian App Store. Here’s exactly what happened — and why we’re proud of it.
Built in Orange County, CA—Banned in Russia
Roskomnadzor
Russia’s federal censorship & surveillance agency
Article 15.1 № 7
The provision used to block circumvention tools
Everywhere else
Live in every other App Store territory
“We are writing to notify you that your application, per demand from Roskomnadzor, will be removed from the Russia App Store because it includes content that is illegal in Russia.”
“According to Roskomnadzor, the app violates No. 7 of Article 15.1 of the Federal Law dated 27.07.2006 No. 149-FZ "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection".”
“While the app has been removed from the Russia App Store, it is still available in the App Stores for the other territories you selected.”
Source: official App Review communication, App Store Connect · Guideline 5.0.0 Legal
Why a government bans a VPN
Let’s be straight with you: Russia hasn’t singled us out as uniquely unbreakable. Since 2024, Roskomnadzor has been systematically forcing VPN and anti-censorship apps out of the Russian App Store — one after another.
We’re on that list for one reason: Citadel does its job. It encrypts your traffic, hides your network activity, and flags the threats sitting on the WiFi around you. That’s exactly the kind of tool a surveillance apparatus would rather its citizens never install.
A regime built on watching people decided our app was a problem. If that’s not a product endorsement, we don’t know what is.
A California startup the
Russian government noticed
GRYHAT is a cybersecurity company headquartered in Orange County, California — not Silicon Valley, not a foreign lab. We build privacy and network-security tools out of OC, for people everywhere.
It’s a strange kind of milestone: a homegrown Orange County startup builds an app good enough that a foreign government 6,000 miles away decides its citizens can’t have it. Local roots, global reach — and now, an official entry on Roskomnadzor’s blocklist to prove it.
We build the same security for an Orange County small business, a family on home WiFi, and a journalist behind a national firewall. Russia just confirmed it works.
Get the app Russia
didn’t want you to have
Privacy and network security built cybersecurity-first. Available everywhere people are still free to choose it.
