mobile Internet

Widespread mobile Internet outages have affected Moscow for over a week, disrupting daily life for its 12 million residents and impacting services like online payments and navigation. Since March 7, offline solutions such as pagers and paper maps have seen increased demand. The Kremlin attributes the disruptions to heightened security measures amid ongoing tensions with Ukraine. Critics argue that the government uses security as a pretext to control citizens' lives. Mobile Internet disruptions have been present in Russia since June 2025 but have only recently intensified in Moscow. Freelancers report negative impacts on their work due to the outages. The Russian government has been managing Internet usage by targeting Western tech companies and promoting domestic alternatives. Access issues have also affected popular apps like Telegram. A law signed by Putin on February 20 allows the Federal Security Service (FSB) to request service suspensions from telecommunications operators, exempting them from liability for compliance. The government has a history of censoring online content and tightening control over civil liberties since Putin's return to power in 2012, with measures intensifying since the invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.