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The Bell reports that Vladislav Minakov, a former employee of a Roskomnadzor agency involved in website blocking, wrote nearly 90% of the code in AIVPN’s latest release. AIVPN’s creator and Minakov confirmed they work together, but the project’s purpose, security and practical effectiveness remain subjects of debate.
Vladislav Minakov, a former employee of a Roskomnadzor agency whose duties included checking website blocks, wrote nearly 90% of the code in the latest release of AIVPN, a service marketed as a way to bypass government restrictions, The Bell reported. AIVPN’s creator and Minakov confirmed to the outlet that they are working together; the project’s security and effectiveness remain contested.
The Bell’s Maria Kolomychenko based the finding on AIVPN’s GitHub commit history, which records changes to the project. The account using the handle vminakov joined in June 2026 and made several hundred changes affecting hundreds of thousands of lines of code, the report said. The Bell used the AI model Claude to estimate that the contributor wrote nearly 90% of the source code in the latest release and developed most of its key components.
The account belongs to Minakov, according to The Bell. He previously worked at the Main Radio Frequency Center, a Roskomnadzor agency, where he worked on Revizor, a system that checks whether internet providers are blocking sites on the agency’s banned lists. He rose to become a technical adviser to the center’s director and left for another job in 2023. His LinkedIn profile lists him as head of software development at GlavNIVTs, an organization overseen by the Russian Presidential Property Management Directorate that develops information systems for government agencies.
Oleg Kirichenko, an entrepreneur from Rostov-on-Don who identifies himself as AIVPN’s creator, told The Bell he met Minakov through GitHub after Minakov submitted a proposed code change. Kirichenko said he verified Minakov’s former employment and then began working with him. Minakov also confirmed his involvement, telling The Bell he was interested in the project because of difficulties transmitting data reliably. He said AIVPN was unrelated to his main job and had no political or commercial dimension.
Trust Questions Around AIVPN
The report puts a spotlight on the people behind a tool intended to help users reach blocked websites. A developer’s experience building or supporting censorship systems does not by itself establish that AIVPN is unsafe or designed to assist authorities. But it gives potential users a reason to seek independent technical scrutiny, particularly because VPN software can handle sensitive connections and user data.
Experts quoted by The Bell offered different assessments. Sarkis Darbinyan, co-founder of RKS Global and a legal adviser to the VPN Guild, said an initial review found nothing suspicious in the code, while Minakov’s background still raised concerns. Mikhail Klimarev, who runs the ZaTelekom Telegram channel, said he would not install it without further investigation. IT expert Filipp Kulin questioned whether the tool could work in practice, arguing that disguising a protocol cannot solve the problem of finding accessible hosting providers.
Those concerns point to two distinct questions: whether the software behaves securely, and whether it can reliably bypass blocks under real network conditions. The Bell’s report does not settle either one.
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From Website Blocking to VPN Code
AIVPN’s online advertisements appeared in spring 2026. The service is marketed as a way to disguise VPN traffic so that it resembles ordinary internet traffic and may evade detection by deep packet inspection, or DPI, systems. The report describes that as the service’s pitch, not as an independently established measure of its performance.
Minakov’s former workplace, the Main Radio Frequency Center, is part of the system responsible for implementing and checking website restrictions in Russia. His work on Revizor involved checking whether providers complied with blocking requirements. The Bell said he left the center in 2023; his current profile identifies a government-linked software role. This history is relevant to questions about trust, but does not show that his AIVPN work is connected to his current employer.
Kirichenko told The Bell he created AIVPN to help people in countries with restricted access to information. Minakov described the protocol as useful for reliable data transmission more broadly. The service’s code is open for inspection, according to Minakov, though public availability alone does not amount to a full security audit or establish how the service operates for users.
““I checked everything very carefully, then we started working together, and he made some pretty useful changes. I just don’t have time to do much work on this project right now.””
— Oleg Kirichenko, AIVPN’s creator, speaking to The Bell
Security and Performance Still Unsettled
The Bell’s reported code-share estimate is based on commit history and an analysis using Claude; the supplied report does not describe a full independent audit of AIVPN. It also does not establish whether the service collects user data, how its infrastructure is operated, or how it performs against blocking systems in practice. Minakov said anyone can inspect the code, but the report does not identify a completed, comprehensive security review.
Experts disagree about the project’s prospects, and an initial review that found no suspicious code is not a guarantee of safety. The report also does not present evidence that Minakov’s current government-linked job is involved in AIVPN, or that the project was created for political purposes. Minakov denied such a connection and said the software was unrelated to his main employment. The extent of the project’s users, its commercial arrangements and its operational safeguards are not established in the account.
Further Review Could Clarify Risks
The immediate next step for users and researchers is further scrutiny of AIVPN’s code, how it handles connections and data, and whether its advertised traffic-disguise features work in real network conditions. The Bell’s report provides no announced timetable for a larger audit, nor does it say that AIVPN or its developers have committed to one.
Kirichenko and Minakov have both spoken to The Bell about their roles and explanations for the collaboration. Any additional technical review, public documentation or response from the developers could help answer questions about security and performance. Until such evidence is available, the report establishes who contributed much of the code and what their past work involved, but not whether AIVPN is safe or effective for individual users.
Key Questions
Who wrote most of AIVPN’s code?
The Bell reported that Vladislav Minakov, using the GitHub handle vminakov, wrote nearly 90% of the source code in AIVPN’s latest release, based on an analysis of the project’s commit history.
What was Minakov’s role at the Roskomnadzor agency?
He worked at the Main Radio Frequency Center on Revizor, a system that checks whether Russian internet providers block websites listed by Roskomnadzor. The Bell said he later became a technical adviser to the center’s director and left in 2023.
What does AIVPN say it does?
AIVPN is marketed as a service that disguises VPN traffic to help it evade detection by deep packet inspection systems. That describes the service’s stated purpose; the report does not independently establish how reliably it works.
Has AIVPN been shown to be unsafe?
The report does not establish that AIVPN is unsafe. RKS Global’s Sarkis Darbinyan said a quick review found nothing suspicious, while noting that Minakov’s background raised concerns. A quick review is not a guarantee of security.
Did Minakov say AIVPN was connected to his government job?
No. Minakov told The Bell that AIVPN was unrelated to his main job and had no political or commercial dimension. The report does not provide evidence that his employer is involved in the project.
Source: meduza.io
