Moscow goes offline
Hello! Over the last week Russia’s internet blackouts have reached a new extreme, this week we look at how Moscow is coping with being thrown back to the online dark ages, and why the authorities are cutting the connection right now.
Russian capital hit by week-long internet blackouts
The authorities’ clampdown on free internet in Russia has reached a new height, with the most serious outages yet seen in Moscow leaving large chunks of the city without any mobile internet whatsoever. Muscovites, long used to the comfort of a thriving digital economy, were left unable to order taxis or even make card payments in stores. Officials tried to claim that it was all just a minor inconvenience, and a small price to pay for “security.” They have not explained exactly what threat they are averting by turning off the internet.
This article is available
exclusively to our subscribers
Start for $1 in your first month
Subscribe for $1-
Unlimited access to an archive of over 300 articles, with 20 more articles added each month
-
Two in-depth weekly newsletters looking at recent events
-
Join The Bell’s editors and authors for webinars on the Russian economy and Russian politics
Already have an account? Log in