The exhibition complex offers three wireless networks, Signal Ural reported. The network designated for foreign delegates, IWYF2026_GLOBAL, has traffic filtering disabled. IWYF2026_UNITED, used by Russian participants, operates in standard mode with all Roskomnadzor blocks in place. A third network, IWYF2026_VIP, is restricted to speakers and organizers.
Logging into any of the networks requires entering the personal number from an accreditation badge. The system prevents Russian citizens from connecting to the open-access network, while foreign guests can reach social media and websites banned in Russia.
The festival hotline confirmed to Agentstvo that foreign guests were given access to "familiar services" through special SIM cards issued to them. Another hotline employee suggested that free internet access was needed so that foreign guests could "broadcast their participation, post materials, content, fill their social networks."
The International Youth Festival runs in Yekaterinburg from September 11 to 17, at the UrFU campus in Novokoltsevsky and the Yekaterinburg-EXPO international exhibition center. The program includes appearances by Deputy Prime Ministers Dmitry Chernyshenko, Vitaly Savelyev and Marat Khusnullin, and Transport Minister Andrei Nikitin, as well as concerts by Dima Bilan, the band Zveri, Zivert, NILETTO, Yegor Krid and other artists.
A similar practice was used during the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in June 2026. A source for the journalists' cooperative Bereg said the forum's organizers arranged special SIM cards for foreign guests and bought VPN subscriptions so that services blocked in Russia would open for them.
In June, Beeline launched a "white VPN" for its subscribers, allowing them to use Spotify, Netflix and other services that have left the Russian market but are not formally on the Roskomnadzor register, without circumventing blocks.