‘We’re back in the early 2000s’. Mobile Internet blackouts are now routine in many Russian regions. We asked readers how it’s upending their lives.

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Regular mobile Internet shutdowns have become a new reality for millions across Russia. While the authorities usually present these local blackouts as responses to the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks, their timing and duration often don’t correspond to any actual strikes. More often, they’re the result of preemptive security measures — such as during Moscow’s Victory Day celebrations or the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. One way or another, people in Russia are having to adjust to being offline in public spaces and out on the street, and to finding workarounds for mobile Internet access. Last week, we asked Meduza’s Russian readers how they’re coping with this new normal. Below, we’ve translated some of the most notable responses into English.

How much does your everyday life depend on mobile Internet access?

Oleg, Ivanovo region

Very much. I work in IT and live in a suburb where there’s almost no wired Internet. When mobile Internet goes down, I basically lose a whole workday — and if a server freezes, I can’t fix it. I also can’t order a taxi anymore, so I have to call up cab drivers I used to know. And if I’m out of town, there’s no way to check the security cameras at home. I can’t quickly look things up or Google everyday problems. At first, it honestly felt like I’d been thrown into the past; I’ve never in my adult life been completely cut off from the Internet, but now it’s just gone, and my smartphone has turned into a useless toy. The only way to reach the outside world is through calls and SMS messages — which I hadn’t sent in years. I even started calling relatives in the city just to find out what was going on and hear the latest news. So, the Soviet nostalgists wanted the USSR back? Well, here you go!

Gamzat, Saratov

I work off the books as a loader, taking jobs directly on the street through messaging apps, so I constantly need to be connected. The connection started going out in mid-June, and it’s hit my income hard. It’s depressing — I’m losing money and clients. I also rely on navigation apps to get around the city, and without Internet, I can’t even find the right address. I can’t call a taxi — I can’t do anything, really.

Alexander, Moscow

I work at a major fintech company. I have access to internal systems and can see Internet outages in real time across Russia’s regions. There are a lot of them every day. Sometimes three regions go dark at once; sometimes it’s 10.

Alexey, Rostov-on-Don

Almost totally. I work remotely as a web developer, and obviously, the job is incredibly difficult without constant Internet access. At the very least, I lose all contact with my colleagues.

On top of that, last year we had rolling blackouts due to heat and overloaded power grids, which meant even our regular wired Internet went out. I can hook up a generator, power the router from a battery, work on a laptop — but what’s the point if there’s no signal?

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Anonymous reader, Tambov region

They’ve been jamming mobile Internet here nonstop in recent days. You can’t call a Yandex taxi (even from home, because the drivers don’t have Internet either), and you can’t pay at the market by card. A lot of ATMs don’t work, either. We’re back to good old phone calls.

Adri, Voronezh

I’m a tech support specialist for IT infrastructure at one of Russia’s largest software companies. Both my job and daily life depend entirely on having constant, uninterrupted Internet access wherever I am. Plus, my wife and I are expecting a baby, which makes staying connected even more important in case anything urgent happens with the pregnancy.

Vadim, St. Petersburg

I sometimes work as an online psychologist, though I mostly see clients in person. I don’t like online sessions partly because of connection issues. Even when the Internet is up, speeds drop, and the call freezes, which creates stress for both me and the client.

Maria, Kursk

I work as a social media marketing specialist, so losing Internet access hits my work directly. I’m already afraid that clients in regions where this isn’t a problem will just drop me.

How did you feel when the authorities started restricting mobile Internet?

Tatyana, Kaluga region

Since there’s a military base near my house, mobile Internet gets shut off all the time — especially since spring 2025. Sometimes it’s just for a couple of hours, other times for several days. All providers are affected. It depends on what’s happening “in the sky.” Funny thing is, about a year ago, they finally upgraded the towers or something, and the mobile Internet signal got way better for the first time in years.

Sergey, Kursk

It feels like we’re back in the early 2000s. Internet only works from home. A lot of my friends have VoLTE enabled on their phones, so I can’t even call them anymore. Not everyone understands how this technology works.

Mikhail, Naberezhnye Chelny

It’s been a total mess. People were really angry. It honestly feels less like a response to drone threats and more like a “dress rehearsal” for a full shutdown. Because when there are actual attacks, the airports — Begishevo and Kazan — suspend flights, but over the past three weeks mobile Internet has been getting cut every day (usually early morning to lunchtime, then again from evening to late at night). Meanwhile, the airports were only closed two or three times. I used to work a lot at my dacha, but now I can’t go there at all because there’s no Internet and I can’t do my job.

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Alexey, Voronezh

I felt negatively about it, plain and simple. For three years, nothing disrupted our Internet at work — drones were getting shot down, and everything kept running. But now something’s changed, and they’ve started turning it off “for our safety.” But how am I supposed to know there’s a drone alert when I’m in my car or walking down the street? Emergency alerts come an hour or more late. What kind of safety is that? People can’t get a taxi at night, so they either walk home or drive drunk. Fights break out because people can’t pay for things or send money. In a month of shutdowns, more people will probably get hurt than in three years of drone strikes.

Yevgenia, Dzerzhinsk

I read on your [Meduza’s] Telegram channel that some places are just now having their Internet cut for the first time, or that people are even getting warnings. Here, we’ve had no Internet every morning (sometimes the emergency “E” network is the only one working for the entire day) for about six months now. But go 30 km (19 miles) over to Nizhny Novgorod and it’s all fine — 4G with no issues. And no one ever tells us in advance. Now everyone just jokes, “Oh wow, they’ve turned the Internet on — just like the hot water!”

Roman, Moscow region

First it reminded me of 2007, back when I had a PDA and would walk past a building or two with Wi-Fi scanning on until I found an open network. Then I remembered it’s not 2007 anymore.

I have a Yota modem with a signal booster and downloaded a map of local base stations. I haven’t had to use it — yet.

Nikita, Tula

At first, they said the restrictions were only for Victory Day, so I hoped it would all end after May 9. But already during the holiday weekend, things crashed: no mobile Internet in the city. Most store payment terminals and some ATMs rely on mobile networks, so you couldn’t pay by card. You’d type a message, and it wouldn’t send. At first, I had no idea what to do. I started carrying cash just in case and told my family I might not respond on WhatsApp or Telegram. To this day, it hasn’t gotten any better. Over the last two weeks, mobile Internet has been unstable at best. One-time passwords via SMS might arrive all at once the next day — like 17 messages in a row. GPS relies on the Internet too, so maps don’t work. And if your home Internet goes out, you’re basically cut off from the world. It’s like being forced into a digital detox.

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Anonymous reader, Tambov region

Locals suspect this has nothing to do with drones. They think the authorities are using it as cover to build out the “Cheburnet” (Russia’s domestic intranet). That’s what it looks like — VPNs of all kinds barely work, and Telegram has issues too. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Adri, Voronezh

I haven’t had any emotional response to governmental decisions since 2014 that weren’t negative. But this one has especially disrupted my routine. I used to visit my parents, walk the dog, sit in the park, see a doctor, or take a trip into nature — all while staying connected and managing work remotely. I could switch between personal and professional tasks wherever I was. Now, I’m tied to either the office or home, where there’s fast, stable Internet. Public Wi-Fi isn’t good enough — especially now, when it’s overloaded. And that’s not even counting how deliveries, taxis, card payments in shops or public transport all stop working. I can’t even start my car remotely to warm it up — not via the Internet, not even by SMS.

Oleg, Ivanovo region

My reaction? They do whatever they want — this is a damn dictatorship that doesn’t care about people. No warnings before shutdowns. And once it’s off, nobody tells you when it’ll be back. They just cut off the whole region, whenever they feel like it, for however long they want. Try complaining — you’ll get locked up. That’s the reality.

Alexander, Moscow

The first thought I had was that we’re under total surveillance. Then came the fear that they could cut us off from the global Internet entirely — and that’s terrifying. I don’t want to lose touch with my loved ones abroad.

What’s been the most surprising or notable consequence of the outages for you?

Maria, Kursk

I bought a coffee on credit from a barista — I told her I’d transfer the money once I got home. A small thing, sure, but while we’re adjusting to these little inconveniences, the screws are tightening. And that’s scary. Meanwhile, my parents keep losing both mobile Internet and Wi-Fi. People just sit around for hours waiting for the connection to come back so they can get work done or finish a presentation for university. Bosses and professors don’t care — they expect results either way.

Tatyana, Kaluga region

The biggest issue is that card payments stop working in many stores. I’d already half-forgotten what cash even looked like, so that was a surprise at first. Now I always carry cash, just in case.

Dina, St. Petersburg

It’s summer break, and my 11-year-old son is on his own while I’m at work. I need to be able to track his location. When the Internet goes down and I can’t see his location, it makes me incredibly anxious.

Artyom, Kazan

I’ve been in a tough financial spot and decided to try courier work on weekends. But with the constant shutdowns, that plan fell apart completely.

Sergey, Kursk

I couldn’t call a taxi while we were celebrating a birthday at our dacha. None of the cars showed up when we tried to call from landlines, either. So I ended up driving a moped while drunk. The police stopped me, wrote me up, and now I’m awaiting a court hearing that could cost me my license.

Nikita, Tula

One time there was an air raid siren for a missile threat, and the Internet was down. I was outside, panicking. I couldn’t check the map, I didn’t get any emergency SMS alerts from the Emergency Ministry, and I had no idea where to run.

Thankfully, everything turned out okay. But ever since, when I’m walking around, I make a mental note of where the nearest shelters are — just in case.

Polina, Stavropol

I live in Stavropol and work remotely. Just yesterday, I arrived in Rostov-on-Don for a business trip. I’d only been there once before, years ago, just passing through.

The Internet was spotty along the highway, but I was even able to stream music in places. But as I got close to the city, the connection dropped completely.

I had no idea about the wider outages and didn’t think it was anything serious — I figured it was just a momentary glitch. But then I lost cellular service too. When it came back, I got a message saying the entire Rostov region was under a drone threat alert. Not exactly comforting.

So there I was, standing by the train station at night in an unfamiliar city, no Internet, no maps, no idea where anything was. I found a street sign and vaguely remembered I needed to head toward the city center, so I started walking — with a heavy bag, along a construction site for a new high-rise.

Eventually, I reached a big building with an address. I called the woman whose apartment I’d rented and asked her to call me a taxi. She answered quickly — even though it was late — and about seven minutes later I was in a car on the way to the apartment.

The driver said it had been like this for about a week. So yeah — fun times.

Adri, Voronezh

On top of the mobile Internet blackouts, my main provider also has issues with regular calls and text messages during those periods. One time, my pregnant wife couldn’t reach me at all — when it really mattered. Thankfully, everything turned out okay, but what if something serious happens and there’s no way to call for help?

You can’t count on ambulances — they take their time, assuming you can even get through. After that incident, I got a second phone and bought SIM cards from all the operators I could, just to have at least some chance of accessing functional Internet.

Anonymous reader, Russia

In our city, it wasn’t just Internet that stopped working, but all phone service in general. On the day it happened, the news was reporting a major fire at the facility where my dad works. It was an hour-and-a-half-long nightmare, not knowing whether he was alive, since it was impossible to call anyone or find anything out.

Sasha, Moscow

I went to Kazan for one day. I wanted to get from the train station to my home as soon as possible. The Internet wasn’t working at all, so you couldn’t order a taxi. We made it by bus to the nearest stop to our home, which felt like a miracle. Then the Internet started working again. I was in a big hurry, so I took an electric scooter to get there even faster.

As soon as my trip started, the Internet went out. The scooter app wouldn’t work without it, so it was impossible for me to mark the trip as complete.

In the end, I had to leave the scooter in the parking lot, photograph everything, go home where I had Wi-Fi, and write to the app’s tech support to ask them to return the money for the extra minutes (when I wasn’t using the scooter anymore). Fortunately, they agreed.

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