{"id":1369967,"date":"2026-03-16T11:34:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/moscow-under-blockade-why-is-putin-cutting-off-the-internet-to-russians\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T11:34:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:34:57","slug":"moscow-under-blockade-why-is-putin-cutting-off-the-internet-to-russians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/moscow-under-blockade-why-is-putin-cutting-off-the-internet-to-russians\/","title":{"rendered":"Moscow under blockade: why is Putin cutting off the Internet to Russians?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Author’s Facebook<\/a> page<\/em><\/p>\n

Interesting events are taking place in Russia. We know that in the near future, the most popular messenger in Russia, Telegram, will be blocked. And before that, processes began that were generally difficult to expect, especially for Moscow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since May 7, 2025, under the pretext of preparing for “Victory Day”, in some remote regions – Sakha, Primorye, Udmurtia, Urals, Siberia – mobile (and often also fixed) Internet began to be turned off – because of “strategically important enterprises”, “protection from Ukrainian UAVs”, etc. Once they started, they still haven’t stopped.<\/p>\n

Then they completely turned off communications (not just mobile Internet) in the center of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other large cities – as protection from our drones. Putin simply signed a law that allows for restrictions on communications at the request of the FSB – and that’s it. Russian publications wrote about this harshly: “Mobile Internet is being turned off throughout the country until the end of the war with Ukraine.”<\/p>\n

The restricted zones include train stations, restaurants in city centers, expensive stores… According to very rough estimates, the economic losses from such protection from our drones cost Moscow alone MORE than 1 billion rubles per day ($12.5 million)! But Russians are saying in unison, “Let’s be even. Let’s endure it” (did anyone expect anything different?)<\/p>\n

Now the screws have been tightened even more: it has been a week since mobile Internet was completely cut off in Moscow and St. Petersburg. DW writes that even in the State Duma, both mobile Internet and WiFi have disappeared. According to Downdetector, only sites from the “white list” continue to work, including “Gosuslugi”, “VKontakte”, “Odnoklassniki”, Yandex services, marketplaces and resources of state bodies. However, according to other sources, in fact, the Internet is not working at all, and not just “bad” sites.<\/p>\n\t\t