Best VPNs for Moscow, Russia

Moscow is the capital and largest city in Russia. With a population of 17.1 million people located in its urban area, it is the 15th largest city in the world. Moscow is an interesting place to visit for quite a few reasons. If you are going to travel to the area for business or pleasure, you won’t want to use public WiFi or even the internet there without using a VPN. Doing so will leave you at risk to surveillance and censorship. We’ll go into more detail in a moment. First, take a look at our list of the best VPNs for Moscow.

Rank	VPN Service	Rating	Server Locations	Visit
1		9.8	160
2		9.4	87
3		9.2	95

In 1147, Yuri Dolgoruky and Sviatoslav Olgovich met at Moscow on the Volga River. That was the first reference to the town. In 1156, Knjaz Yury Dolgoruky fortified the town with a timber fence and added a moat. The fortifications held until Ghengis Khan’s grandson, Batu Khan burned the city and killed its inhabitants in 1237.

Since those times, there have been many things to happen in the city. Those include being the capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R), protests, revolutions, and many more. After the fall of Communism in 1991, Moscow went into a tailspin economically. However, it has mostly stabilized and is now doing quite well. People visit the city because of business opportunities, museums, historical landmarks, fine arts, architecture, and more.

In 2012, Moscow launched its’ free WiFi system. It became available in many places from trains to parks to local businesses. While that may sound great, cybercriminals and the Russian government (called the Kremlin) monitor internet activity. By creating a secure and encrypted connection, you also make it much more difficult for thieves to compromise your data. Without one, you are vulnerable to attack. However, you may not be completely safe from other sources under some circumstances.

The second reason to use a VPN while in Moscow is because of censorship. It is well known that the Kremlin censors the internet, and you may have an issue trying to view some of your favorite sites. When using a VPN for that reason, you will connect to a server in another country. That will help you get around the censorship found in Russia.

Those are two very good reasons to use a VPN while in Moscow. However, you may realize other reasons after you sign up for service. Whether you are trying to keep yourself safe from prying eyes or want to defeat censorship, a VPN will have you covered. Now that you know why using one while in Moscow is very important, let’s take a look at what you should look for.

The way that VPNs operate is by using encryption protocols. Most services will offer you a number of protocols to choose from. The best available protocol to use is OpenVPN. That is because it has a great mix of speed and security. If you are given an option between a UDP and a TCP version of that protocol, UDP is the fastest. If you are having connection issues, the TCP version is your best choice. Though it is slower, you are less likely to have connection issues.

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1. Best VPN for Moscow: ExpressVPN

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If you play games online, you may have heard about Distributive Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Those are attacks that can put a stop to your gaming experience in a hurry. However, the way around that is to connect to a VPN server. By doing so, you can get around those types of attacks because it changes your IP address. Whether you play competitively or casually, you have better things to concentrate on than not being able to compete in your favorite game.

Since ExpressVPN offers browser extensions for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, they have also included several privacy features to help protect you. That includes re-routing you to a more secure version of the website you entered, location spoofing so that your browser will match the IP address of the area you select, and WebRTC blocking. If you connect to a VPN without this feature, websites can still see where you are. Of course, you could always get another extension to resolve the issue, but having it inclusive is better.

ExpressVPN is the #1 rated VPN on our site. We have had the opportunity to compare hundreds of VPN services over the years and ExpressvPN is our favorite. Whether you want to protect your privacy on WiFi networks or unblock streaming services in other countries, ExpressVPN is a good choice. Best of all, you can sign up for 12 months of unlimited VPN access and get 3 months free during our current promotion. The ExpressVPN 30-day money-back guarantee gives you plenty of time to test the service.

Want to learn more? Read our full ExpressVPN review.

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2. Best VPN for Moscow: NordVPN

If you are concerned about getting everything set up with NordVPN, you are in luck. While they have great how-to pages and guides to set everything up correctly, they still offer you their 24/7 support network. The website states that they will respond in 24 hours if you decide to email them. If you need a faster response, they give you the option of chatting with someone live. That is perfect for those pressing questions you may have.

If you are a gamer, there are some advantages to connecting to a NordVPN server. One of the biggest ones will help you avoid lag. If you connect to one of the busier game servers, increased latency can be an issue. With NordVPN, though, you could be assigned to a less active server or make the distance shorter between you and the game server. Either one of those things could make a difference, whether you are a competitive player or one that plays more casually.

Want to learn more? Read our full NordVPN review.

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3. Best VPN for Moscow: PIA

If you are one of the many people that like to stream sports on your favorite mobile device, connecting to a VPN server from Private Internet Access may be useful to you. More and more providers are allowing their users to watch some sports for free. Great examples of that include baseball and American football in the US. However, if you are traveling abroad or are otherwise outside of your home area, you would miss out on those games. By connecting to a VPN server you should be able to regain the access you wish.

Established in 2010, Private Internet Access has an excellent reputation in the community. They support several different privacy foundations and organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, the Internet Society, OpenMedia, Open Rights Group, and many more open source projects. That shows their commitment to protecting the privacy of their members and why so many users love the service. In addition to reasonable pricing, Private Internet Access offers a trustworthy service that you can not go wrong with if you choose it.

Want to learn more? Read our full Private Internet Access review.