Russia is intensifying tests of its internet control system, causing mobile internet outages in Moscow and disrupting daily life.
Russia is stepping up its tests of systems designed to keep millions of people from accessing information online in times of political unrest, shutting off mobile internet access in the capital in recent days.
People in Moscow, a city of 13 million, have found themselves unable to pay online bills or message co-workers in recent days. Commuters stepping out of the city's subway stations can't order a cab to the office. Unable to access online maps, many are asking strangers for directions for the first time in years. Those who normally work from home are filling cafes as they seek a stable Wi-Fi connection.
In recent months, dozens of Russian regions have gone offline suddenly. The Kremlin has defended the shut-offs as necessary to protect Russians from attacks by Ukrainian drones, which can use local cellphone towers for navigation.
But analysts say what Russians are actually experiencing is the trial of a nationwide system Moscow has been honing to limit information and hobble connectivity in times of upheaval, inspired by lessons from Iran and other authoritarian states.
"This is a system they have wanted to build for years. Now the threat of Ukrainian drones is a perfect chance to test it nationwide," said Alena Epifanova, an expert on Russia's internet at the German Council on Foreign Relations. "They use it as a pretext, even in regions where there is no such danger."
The shutdowns have attracted greater attention in recent days as they have hit Moscow, a city that has long prided itself on its embrace of online services. Now data outages are disrupting daily routines and businesses.
Residents say the worst drop-offs have been happening closest to the seat of Russian power. “The nearer you are to the Kremlin, the more severe the restrictions are,” said a 29-year-old IT professional.
Russia has been testing a system that Iran used as it sought to suppress recent protests in January. When Tehran shut down the internet to prevent people from organizing and information from leaking out, it activated a parallel internet network it had invested billions of dollars in building. So-called white SIM cards allowed regime insiders and VIPs to maintain access to the web.
Russia has been honing and testing similar infrastructure for the past year. It has established a white list of government-approved sites that remain accessible during shut-offs. The sites include government portals, state media outlets, and Russian homegrown apps such as Max, a messaging platform controlled by the government.
That effort has also targeted platforms Russians have relied on for years, such as the Telegram and WhatsApp messaging apps. In the past 12 months alone, Russia has blocked or throttled those apps among others and forced government institutions including schools to use Max, which tech experts say has no encryption and can be easily monitored.
But the data outages have had the most immediate and far-reaching impact, extending to dozens of regions across Russia's 11 time zones -- including places far from the fighting in Ukraine. In Kamchatka, a peninsula located almost 4,500 miles from the front lines in Ukraine that hasn't been struck by drones, the regional governor has appealed to Moscow to lift the restrictions.
An official of the Ulyanovsk region west of Moscow said in November that mobile data shut-offs would likely be in place until the end of the war.
In some regions, pharmacies have had to close as their medicine tracking system went offline. Shutdowns have caused problems for diabetic children whose sensors can't transmit glucose levels to parents and warn them in case of emergencies. People are unable to book doctor's appointments, order medication or use online banking to send money to elderly or disabled relatives.
"This is creating a lot of problems," said Anastasia Kuznetsova, a mother of two living in St. Petersburg, which has also suffered from outages. "In shops, delivery services, taxis and other basic services."
Ulyana Sedysheva, a mother of two from the suburbs of Ulyanovsk, said during recent shut-offs that she was unable to pay her bills and struggled to fulfill orders for customers of her online business, while her children couldn’t access online school materials for their homework. She has since set up a wired internet connection to ease the burden.
In Moscow, residents say they are being taken back in time. Coffee stalls accept only cash because their payment terminals are down. Some people are buying paper maps. Sales of walkie-talkies from Russia’s main online retailer have risen 73% in the past month, according to business newspaper Kommersant.
Business has been hit. Ride-hailing apps, couriers and retailers have suffered. Employees have missed urgent messages from their bosses. The outages caused five billion rubles in loss for companies in Moscow, equivalent to almost $63 million, over a period of five days, Kommersant reported Wednesday. The paper said mobile internet usage comprises 50% to 70% of internet traffic in Russia.
"It's a paradox that you can use all kinds of internet services in most of the country," said Jonny Tickle, a British national living in Moscow. "And then you're in the center of the capital, in full view of the Kremlin, and you can't send a WhatsApp message."
On Wednesday, the Kremlin defended the latest shut-offs in Moscow but didn't give a reason for them. "Citizens should have no doubt that the main thing here is to ensure security," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Internet issues are yet another pain for Russians who are contending with rising inflation and economic strain more than four years into the war in Ukraine.
The shut-offs are likely to become more frequent, analysts say. In February, Russia's parliament passed a new law obliging telecommunication companies to shut off data access if asked to do so by the Federal Security Service, Russia's domestic intelligence agency.
But the more sophisticated the government effort becomes, the more ingenious are efforts to stay online.
Kuznetsova said residents of St. Petersburg, a city of 5.5 million people, have turned en masse to virtual private networks, which can circumvent bans on certain websites and messengers.
New legislation makes it illegal to advertise VPNs, and the Kremlin has called for the removal of them from app stores. That hasn’t stopped them from proliferating as the primary means to evade censorship. It is a game of whack-a-mole that the authorities are struggling to win.
The authorities have sought to use humor to fend off criticism of the shut-offs. Russia’s communications watchdog touted their benefits last year in a cartoon comparing them to a form of digital detox, urging Russians to log off and “find connection with yourself.” Residents have responded in kind, posting a picture of a tin can phone to signal their slide back to the pre-digital age.
Analysts say Russia’s descending digital iron curtain is gradually normalizing the idea that internet freedoms are reversible. It is forcing people to rely increasingly on public Wi-Fi networks and apps such as Max that the government can easily monitor. And it is coming on the heels of similar efforts in the past -- each more severe than the one before.
In 2016, Russia blocked LinkedIn, a website with a tiny user base inside the country. The following year it slowed the speed of Twitter, the social-media platform since renamed X. This year it has restricted the use of major messaging apps including WhatsApp and Telegram, and restricted YouTube, a vital source for Russians seeking information that contradicts the government line.
Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russia's internet, said this piecemeal approach to internet censorship has helped authorities avoid sparking protests. It has also forced a gradual change in people's behavior to align with the government's goal of limiting the spread of incriminating information.
"What we are seeing is an attempt to change the social behavior of Russians," said Soldatov. "The goal is to re-educate people and to make people think twice before posting something that may spark some sort of protest."