Claude starts a purge: Russian users banned en masse, even behind VPN

Today Russian-speaking users flooded the internet with the same complaint: Anthropic has cut them off from Claude. People say the bans hit even long-time VPN users and those paying with foreign cards. The email is the same for everyone: automated systems found "signs of Usage Policy violations", the safety team confirmed them, access is closed, and an appeal can be filed via claude.ai.

The pattern users describe goes like this. An account the system flags as suspicious gets an identity check. Anthropic runs it through Persona: you photograph a passport or other ID and take a live selfie. The procedure is officially documented in Claude's help center. After that, users say, the passport decides everything: a Russian document gets the account banned, the subscription is not refunded, and even a residence permit in another country does not help. Users from China report similar stories.

Formally Anthropic has invented nothing new: Russia is not on Claude's list of supported regions, and the rules do not allow using the service from there. What is new is that this used to be widely ignored, and now the checks have reached people who thought they were safe.

Based on the complaints, these things seem to raise the odds of a check: frequently switching VPN IPs and countries, logging in from different devices, buying an expensive plan right after signing up, paying with a card issued somewhere other than where you appear to be. These are user observations, not Anthropic rules, and nothing guarantees that being careful will save an account. If you are asked for a passport and it is Russian, users say there is little left to do.

Anthropic has not commented on the wave of bans. But KARMAZIN MEDIA lost two accounts too, so this is not a rumor. The verdict is simple: from Russia, do not build anything on Claude that you cannot afford to lose.