This not surprising me to be honest.It's mostly tech savvy people right now who interested in and using Bitcoin.
For them it is no problem to circumvent that dumb ban of localbitcoins.
In my country localbitcoins is banned as well, but people found ways to still use it.
This is a good sign and should show government and stupid regulators that people are far away from being dumb and that this created movement of free money keeps going.
Buying Bitcoin is especially attractive for people in countries with high inflation and a lack of availability of other safe haven assets (such as gold and silver). So a rise in Bitcoin adoption in Russia is hardly surprising. In fact a ban of websites such as localbitcoins might even make acquiring Bitcoin more attractive, when people are already suspicious of government. The people in Russia are well trained to cope with hardships imposed by their government and are very good at circumventing bans. Large parts of the Russian youth are very tech-savvy and routinely use tools to get around bans of certain websites.
It would be a wise decision of the Russian and other governments, to fully legitimize and embrace Bitcoin. It would not only be highly beneficial for the economy (especially in terms of international trade) but would also be a great opportunity to finally get rid of the US-Dollar dominance... but of course that's highly unlikely to happen...
ya.ya.yo!
