Product2 min read
Blocked in Russia or blocking Russia? How Block Checker tells the difference
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A site that will not open from Russia can be in the Roskomnadzor registry — or it can be blocking Russian visitors itself. Same symptom, different cause. Here is how to tell which.
When a website does not open from Russia, there are two very different explanations — and from the outside they look exactly the same. We built Block Checker to tell them apart in a few seconds.
Two directions of blocking
Blocked in Russia. Roskomnadzor (RKN), the Russian communications regulator, maintains a registry of restricted resources. Internet providers in Russia are required to restrict access to the entries in it — by domain name, by IP address or by inspecting traffic. The website itself works normally; it is the network in between that stops you.
Blocking Russia. Since 2022, many services restrict visitors with Russian IP addresses on their own side — to comply with sanctions, because payments no longer work, or simply as a company decision. Here the Russian network is not involved: the website recognizes where the request comes from and refuses to serve it.
Same symptom, different cause — and a different next step. A site owner whose domain landed in the registry deals with the regulator; a site owner who blocks a region by mistake fixes a firewall or CDN rule. Knowing which case you face saves hours of guessing.
What Block Checker shows
Type a domain and the app checks two directories at once:
- Blocked by RKN — domains from the Roskomnadzor registry;
- Blocking Russia — websites that block Russian IP addresses themselves.
Search works by partial name, so you do not need the exact address, and results appear instantly. Since version 3.1 the app also runs a DNS check that shows how the domain actually resolves — useful to separate a block from a plain DNS misconfiguration or an expired domain.
| What you see | Likely cause | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| The site opens abroad, but from Russia you get the provider's stub page or a timeout | Entry in the RKN registry | Blocked by RKN |
| The site answers from Russia with "not available in your region" or an error page | The site blocks Russian IP addresses | Blocking Russia |
| The domain does not resolve anywhere | DNS problem or an expired domain | DNS check |
Who uses it
- Web developers and agencies checking that a client's domain is reachable for their audience.
- System administrators investigating why a service or an API endpoint is unavailable from Russian networks.
- Site owners making sure their domain did not end up in the registry by accident — for example after sharing an IP address with a blocked neighbour.
- Curious users who want to understand why a familiar site stopped opening.
Built to stay out of your way
There is no registration and nothing to configure. The directories are synchronized regularly with trusted sources, and the domains you check are used only to answer your query — they are not stored together with any identifier. Details are in the app's privacy policy.
Note
Block Checker answers the question "what is going on with this domain". It is a reference tool and does not help to bypass any restrictions.
Block Checker is free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and on Google Play.