Widespread mobile Internet outages have gripped Moscow for over a week, creating notable disruptions in the daily lives of its residents and raising concerns about the extent of President Vladimir Putin’s government’s control over online activities. The city, home to more than 12 million people, has seen a significant impact on various services, including online payments, taxi applications, and navigation tools.
In a surprising twist, the demand for offline solutions has surged, with sales of pagers and paper maps rising in this tech-savvy metropolis, where a considerable portion of Russia’s wealth is concentrated. Since the onset of these outages on March 7, the situation has deteriorated, affecting even those websites listed on the government’s “whitelist”—resources deemed state-friendly and supposedly exempt from restrictions.
Government Response and Public Sentiment
The Kremlin has attributed these disruptions to heightened security measures, although specifics remain scarce. Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, noted on March 12 that “Kyiv is using increasingly sophisticated methods for attacks, so Russia needs increasingly technological protection measures,” alluding to Ukraine’s ongoing resistance against Russia’s full-scale invasion, which has now entered its fifth year.
Critics of the government argue that state authorities frequently invoke security concerns as a pretext for tightening control over citizens’ lives and freedoms. Mikhail Klimarev, an activist and director of the Internet Protection Society, expressed his frustration, stating, “Russia’s leadership is simply very cowardly. So cowardly that it does not care about civil liberties, the economy, or people’s convenience. It absolutely does not care about any of that.”
While outages have affected various regions of Russia for months, the situation in the capital has drawn heightened scrutiny. Klimarev pointed out that mobile Internet disruptions have been prevalent across the country since June 2025, but only recently have they reached Moscow. Residents have reported a near-total lack of mobile Internet access, affecting both central districts and surrounding areas.
Freelancer Alina shared her struggles, stating, “I had to give my client a discount because I couldn’t meet the deadline,” highlighting the tangible impact on professionals reliant on stable Internet connections.
Testing Control Measures
Putin’s government has grappled for years with managing and restricting Russians’ Internet usage. Authorities have targeted Western tech giants like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon while promoting domestic alternatives that are easier to control. Activists suspect that the current mobile Internet shutdown in Moscow serves as a test of the “whitelist” system, which was first implemented last summer. This list includes websites of mobile operators, pro-Kremlin media outlets, government agencies, marketplaces, and social media platforms such as Odnoklassniki and VK.
Access issues have also plagued Telegram, the most widely used messaging app in Russia, with reports indicating an 80 percent drop in accessibility since the previous day, according to Klimarev. Meanwhile, the state-backed messaging app Max has faced criticism, with many viewing it as a tool for state surveillance, despite assurances from state media regarding its security and independence.
In a significant move, Putin signed a law on February 20 requiring telecommunications operators to suspend services at the request of the Federal Security Service (FSB). This legislation also exempts operators from liability to clients if service interruptions result from compliance with the intelligence agency’s demands.
The Russian government has a long history of censoring online content to stifle opposition, monitoring Internet traffic under the guise of security, and tightening media control. Since Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012, there has been an increasing clampdown on freedoms of speech, assembly, and other civil liberties, with measures intensifying since the onset of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
