Thank you for your compassionate answer and don’t worry, I am aware of Tor and by extension Tails/Whonix/Qubes. Massive kudos for bridging! It really makes the difference - Tor access was pretty poor at times.

Also, as things stand, using a VPN is not illegal inside Russia, despite all the pressure - there goes the suspicion that the government itself uses VPNs heavily, and there are several records of local governments actually adding VPNs to official purchases (lol).

As for payments, some of the VPSes accept anonymous crypto like Monero, and some of the foreign ones accept ruble payments, although this is obviously more reckless.