Office workers struggle with blocked internet. Teenagers are constantly forced to switch VPNs. Taxi drivers struggle to navigate Moscow without online navigation. The Kremlin flexes its muscles on the internet, Reuters reports.
The government has periodically blocked the internet in regions across Russia, while also restricting messaging services Telegram and WhatsApp and removing dozens of virtual private networks that can be used to bypass site and app bans. For the past week, mobile internet has been completely cut off every day in parts of central Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major cities, according to reporters in those areas and eight senior foreign diplomats in Russia.
"These measures are being taken," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the restrictions on messaging apps and internet services. He said they were partly due to the fact that a number of foreign companies refused to comply with Russian law, and partly due to security measures against the threat of Ukrainian drones."
The attack drones can use cellular networks to help navigate. Russia's online crackdown this year has been accompanied by the introduction of new laws that oblige mobile operators to disconnect any customer at the request of the Federal Security Service and give the agency the power to create a network of pre-trial detention centers under its jurisdiction. The broader goal of strengthening online powers is to help the Kremlin strengthen domestic control in the context of the war in Ukraine, according to the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
If the conflict drags on, it could increasingly strain public support, the envoys said. If the war ends, Russian officials are likely to be prepared for any dissent that may follow, they added. One of them suggested that Moscow had amassed forces that would allow it to launch a "major crackdown" online.
The end of Moscow's war in Afghanistan in 1989 sparked major social unrest in Russia, with returning veterans fueling a wave of lawlessness that marred the 1990s. The chaos was compounded by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. "Russian leaders and security services remember 1991 and remember what happened to Russia and what happened to them when Moscow stopped a major war in Afghanistan: the country fell apart, the security services were divided - it was a disaster," said Andrei Soldatov, a Russian investigative journalist and expert on security services. "What's happening now is that the security services are trying to create a situation where - if Putin signs a peace agreement or if Putin engages in a protracted war - it won't destroy everything," he added.
Two Russian sources familiar with the online crackdown said Moscow had studied the experience of other countries, notably China and Iran, and had tasked authorities with developing a way to block parts of the internet, both mobile and fixed, while also controlling online communications.
After the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia imposed its most repressive laws since Soviet times, strengthening the censorship powers and influence of the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB. This year, Moscow has further tightened security. President Vladimir Putin, who served as a KGB officer from 1985 to 1990, marked the fourth anniversary of the war in Ukraine on February 24 by attending the annual FSB meeting in Moscow. He told the agency to step up the fight against terrorism - which he included attacks from Ukraine - while strengthening the "information and digital space".
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said all the measures had been taken legally to ensure security amid the Ukrainian conflict, which Putin described as a confrontation with the West. Two Russian officials close to the Kremlin have disputed that the crackdown on the internet and messaging apps is repressive, calling it essential to improving security and ensuring national unity against Western attempts to sow discord.
The eight diplomats said Moscow’s crackdown on the internet this year has gone much further than they have seen before in the country. Mobile internet has been intermittently shut down in some Russian regions for months, often after major drone attacks from Ukraine. By mid-January, Russia had blocked more than 400 VPNs, a 70 percent increase since the end of last year, according to the Kommersant newspaper.
Moscow’s crackdown has intensified in recent weeks, diplomats and reporters say, with the government also taking action against the Dubai-based Telegram service and the U.S.-based WhatsApp. Last month, Russia slowed down Telegram, which has more than 1 billion active users and is widely used in both Russia and Ukraine, and is investigating its billionaire founder Pavel Durov as part of a criminal case related to terrorism charges. Russian officials have said Telegram was hacked by Ukrainian and NATO intelligence agencies and that Russian soldiers have died as a result.
Telegram has denied any hacking and said Moscow is trying to force Russians to use MAX, a state-run messaging app that schools and universities have been told to use for chat groups for parents and students. "Every day, the authorities come up with new pretexts to restrict Russians' access to Telegram as they seek to suppress the right to privacy and freedom of speech," Durov said. "A sad sight of a country that is afraid of its own people."
The Kremlin also completely blocked WhatsApp last month for failing to comply with local law. The app's owner, tech giant Meta, condemned the move as a setback for the security of people in Russia. Some young Russians have vowed to avoid the crackdown by switching to various VPNs as the services were banned, not because of politics but simply to interact with Western apps like Instagram and Snapchat, which are restricted in Russia.