Russians feel strain of Putin’s war with mobile internet shutdowns

Russians have endured drone attacks, rising prices and a crackdown on free speech. But today they are increasingly being asked to do without the internet on their phones, straining nerves and leaving many feeling disconnected after four years of war in Ukraine.

Mobile internet outages have become commonplace across the country, a measure authorities say is necessary to prevent attacks by Ukrainian drones, some of which use the technology for navigation.

But Russians who spoke to NBC News, experts and even the country’s extremist pro-war bloggers questioned that rationale. Ukrainian drones continue to hit their targets inside Russia, although users as far away as Kamchatka – some 7,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border – are being told that “security concerns” are to blame for their lack of connectivity.

The outages often left ordinary Russians unable to use their phones on the go – to make calls, order a taxi or pay for groceries. They affected small businesses and forced some people to have to carry cash or stay home to get reliable Wi-Fi.

Parents of children with diabetes have told Russian media that they cannot use phone apps to monitor their blood sugar levels during power outages.

It’s not just breakdowns that cause consternation.

Russian authorities are increasingly enforcing what’s known as a “whitelist” — a limited register of government-approved websites that people can still access on their phones in the event of an outage, significantly limiting the type of information they get.

It comes against the backdrop of increasing restrictions on what Russians can do online, part of a broader crackdown on free speech since the Kremlin’s invasion – bans on Instagram and Facebook, slowdowns on YouTube, restrictions on foreign messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram, as well as the virtual private network services that many Russians use to access censored content online.

Everyone interviewed by NBC News said they were reluctant to speak to foreign media about a sensitive security topic and did not want their personal information shared, fearing possible repercussions.

Although the outages did not cause a massive wave of anger, some tried to rally against the measures.

Anastasia, from the Tver region northwest of Moscow, said she had intended to join an internet freedom protest in November, which ultimately did not take place. She was fed up, she said, because outages often left her unable to use messaging apps, taxi apps or navigation maps on her phone. Even some of the “whitelisted” websites don’t load during these outages, she said.

Anastasia said that on one occasion her mother, a disabled pensioner, found herself unable to pay for her groceries because the card machines at her local store would not work without a mobile connection. She had to walk to the nearest post office, some distance away, to collect money. “She has been keeping cash ever since. But it’s not practical, we live in the 21st century,” Anastasia said.

Aside from the official explanation, Anastasia said she believes the Kremlin is using these outages to prepare the Russian public for a “Korean-style” model of the Internet, which is heavily censored and restricted.

“I think the authorities want to do something similar in our country,” she said.

Some government officials have urged residents to view the outages as an opportunity for “digital detox,” while a senior information policy lawmaker told state news agency Tass last month that the outages should be seen as a welcome break from “endlessly watching useless videos.”

The governor of the Oryol region, Andrei Klychkov, said that these inconveniences are nothing compared to the “heroism” of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

Increasingly, regional authorities are reporting that the outages have no expiration date and could last until the end of the war.

“It’s a pretty desperate tactic because you’re accepting mounting economic losses and disruption to civilian life,” said Bob Tollast, a land warfare expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank in London. Many Ukrainian drones have multiple navigation methods, such as GPS, to mitigate the impact of outages, he explained.

To prevent drones from connecting to a civilian cellular network, the Russian government must also deny access to large areas, he said, adding that any attempt to stop what is essentially a flying explosive device could have the unintended effect of knocking it off course.

Artyom, a native of the western Chuvashia Republic, told NBC News that he faces mobile internet outages almost every day. “This is happening because Ukrainian drones are reaching our territory, but blocking the Internet does not seem to help,” he said.

Even the country’s leading pro-war bloggers have expressed doubts.

“There is no evidence yet that shutting down the Internet has any impact on the effectiveness of enemy drone strikes,” war blogger Yuri Kotenok wrote last month, adding that the move constitutes a “mockery” of ordinary Russians.

“The enemy immediately understood what countermeasures we were going to take. And they opted for satellites – they cannot be jammed,” wrote the popular pro-war Telegram channel “Two Majors”, while blaming bureaucracy and lack of technological knowledge among Russian military top brass for the outages.

In September, Russia’s Digital Ministry published a “white list” of websites still accessible in the event of an outage – mainly government services, the Russian search engine Yandex and Russian social networks. The list was expanded in November to include, among others, some state media, the Russian Post website, as well as taxi and weather services.

Some people have complained that Telegram, which millions of Russians use and rely on daily for news – including drone alerts – is not on the list despite being created by Russian tech tycoon Pavel Durov.

Presented as a temporary measure, the whitelists are now part of broader Russian censorship, said Sarkis Darbinyan, a cyber lawyer and founder of the digital rights organization RKS Global. “At any moment, Russian officials might have this idea: Why not use this as the default model for the entire country? Darbinyan said. “There is a great danger that in 2026 the authorities will definitively adopt this model. »

The Russian Duma is currently considering a bill that would allow the powerful Federal Security Service to force telecommunications operators to shut down communications services at their request “to protect against emerging threats to the security of citizens and the state.”

Mobile internet outages cause “huge discontent” among the Russian public, Darbinyan said, which the Kremlin cannot ignore.

Russians are not alone: ​​Iranians were deprived of the Internet for weeks after authorities cracked down on nationwide unrest. In its own version of whitelists, the Islamic Republic allows access to the global internet only to people with security clearance, according to an analysis by the London-based think tank Chatham House.