Copilot in Russia: Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot in 2026
Copilot disappears from Windows for users in Russia, and GitHub Copilot isn't sold to Russia. What's available, the account risks, and alternatives.
Quick fix. Many Copilot features are region-locked; a VPN gives a stable foreign address — Surok, 3 days free. Read the account-risk section first.
Microsoft Copilot: Windows 11 checks the computer's location and removes Copilot for users in Russia; copilot.microsoft.com is unavailable from Russian addresses but usually opens with a foreign one.
GitHub Copilot: GitHub states Copilot can't be sold or exported to Russia without special permission under US export controls, and it checks country, payment method, payment history and account data. Copilot Free exists but still depends on country; Russian cards fail even with a foreign IP.
Risk: bypassing regional limits breaches GitHub's and Microsoft's terms, and losing a GitHub account with repositories hurts far more than losing Copilot — keep backups. Alternatives: JetBrains AI, Cursor, Continue, Claude, ChatGPT, local models.