Moscovites woke up on March 6 to an inconvenient new reality: the city centre no longer had a mobile internet connection.    

Residents with smartphones were suddenly cut off from browsing online, using messenger apps or completing everyday tasks like ordering taxis, using contactless payment systems and even accessing public toilets.

Even stranger was the lack of communication as to why the blackout was happening. The Kremlin cited “security reasons” without saying how long the cuts would last.

As the restrictions continued, WiFi continued to provide internet in homes and other buildings as sales of paper maps, pagers and walkie-talkies surged. 

Russian daily newspaper Izvestia ran a front-page cartoon showing residents confused that their smartphones had been replaced with bricks as carrier pigeons swooped through the skies of the Russian capital.

Then, three weeks after it began, the block was suddenly lifted without warning on March 25, although connection remained poor in many areas.

At the same time, a second blockade has begun in Russia’s second-largest city, St Petersburg. 

This time, the government warned the city’s 5.6 million residents in advance that internet outages could be imminent – again, citing “security reasons”. 

‘White list’

In Moscow, internet restrictions are not new. GPS has often been unavailable since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

But the widespread internet outage in Russia’s two largest cities reflects a trend that has been going on in the rest of the country for the past year.   

In regions close to the Ukrainian border – and increasingly throughout Russia – frequent internet outages have been justified by the authorities as a response to the threat of drone attacks.

Read moreRussia and Ukraine escalate drone attacks as Moscow starts spring offensive

In November 2025, 57 Russian regions, on average, reported daily disruptions to mobile phone links, according to Na Svyazi, an activist group monitoring shutdowns.

Such is the sophistication of Ukraine’s current drone technology that “no region of Russia can feel safe” from attack, said Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council, on March 17.

In many regions, only a handful of websites and online services remained available during connectivity blackouts – those on the government-approved “white list”.

The list is largely made up of official websites, and included the unencrypted state messaging app Max, which has been pre-installed on phones and tablets sold in Russia since September.

The app – which is not available in Europe – aims to be omnipresent in Russia, combining social media and messaging functions with access to government services, a digital ID card system, banking and payments. 

State surveillance

As Russia’s internet users are increasingly forced to use Max, there are “serious and valid concerns” about government surveillance on the app, said Oleg Ignatov, a senior Russia analyst at Crisis Group.

And many users are wary of being monitored. “If you live in Russia, you would never discuss anything sensitive on Max. You use a different messenger and discuss it in a different way,” Ignatov said.

But different messaging apps are becoming harder to come by. 

The government, citing security concerns, plans to ban the encrypted Telegram app – which has more than 96 million users in Russia and plays a significant role in military communications – and restrict Western platforms including WhatsApp, YouTube and Meta.

In this context, the internet outages look like “part of a larger effort” to isolate the country from “the information world beyond Russia, and also to make it more difficult for people to communicate among themselves within Russia”, said Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

Ramping up control

The sudden outage in Moscow has fuelled speculation that the Russian government plans to ramp up online control and surveillance.

“It happened suddenly, without explanation, and the problem is that nobody knows why they imposed such restrictions,” said Ignatov.

The internet cuts also provoked rare opposition. Even newspapers normally loyal to the government critiqued the measure as the outage sparked public outrage and caused economic hardship.

In the first five days of restrictions alone, companies in Moscow recorded losses equivalent to nearly $63 million, according to the Russian financial newspaper Kommersant. 

That the government would take such a risk sets a worrying precedent, that “the Russian state, if it felt it needed [to], could impose a more long-term restriction on mobile internet”, Gould-Davies said. 

“The authorities upset a large number of citizens in its capital, and you don’t do that unless something important is at stake.”

As Moscow came back online, Russia’s interior ministry issued a warning on Thursday against taking part in “unauthorised public events”, citing an “increase” in calls for rallies.

“All attempts to hold such events will be immediately suppressed, and their organisers and participants will be detained,” it said in a statement.