Even when the Internet works in Russia, something on it doesn’t. Here’s what’s broken over the past month.

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In Russia, Internet outages have become routine. Website crashes and service disruptions are nothing new, either. But the most serious incident came on July 28, when Ukrainian and Belarusian hackers broke into Aeroflot’s internal systems — delaying 150 flights, stranding at least 20,000 passengers, and costing the airline more than 250 million rubles (over $3 million). And it was far from the only disruption that month. Some appeared to be the result of cyberattacks, others possibly linked to state-imposed blocks. In many cases, the cause remains unclear. Meduza takes a look back at all of the services that broke across the Russian Internet over the past month.

Retail

VkusVill grocery chain. On July 30, VkusVill’s online store went down. The company emphasized that this was not a hacker attack. The issue was resolved about four hours later.

Dobrotsen discount stores. On July 30, the company’s website stopped working. Dobrotsen described the incident as an “internal failure.” However, according to the Telegram channel Mash, it was a hacker attack that took down the website and disrupted operations at the company’s warehouses and offices.

Evotor online point-of-sale service. On the morning of July 30, users across multiple regions in Russia began reporting that Evotor’s website and mobile app were down, with widespread issues placing orders and processing payments. The company blamed the outage on a problem with its provider but gave no estimated timeline for resolution. Another wave of user complaints followed on the morning of July 31.

Vinlab alcohol retailers. All Vinlab stores shut down on July 14 and only began reopening on July 22. The chain’s parent company, Novabev Group, said it had been targeted by an “unprecedented cyberattack” after refusing to pay a ransom. According to estimates from experts, the shutdown cost Novabev Group more than 1 billion rubles (over $12 million) in losses.

Restaurants and delivery

Rostic’s (formerly KFC). On July 30–31, online ordering and self-service kiosks were down. According to posts from Rostic’s on social media, restoring service took at least 13 hours. The company did not disclose the cause of the outage.

Samokat delivery service. The service also went down on July 30, around the same time as VkusVill, but resumed operations relatively quickly — though not for all users. No explanation was provided.

Vkusno i tochka (formerly McDonald’s). On July 18, the chain announced that its mobile app was unavailable due to a “provider failure.”

iiko restaurant automation service. According to the company, its servers were hit by “unprecedented DDoS attacks” beginning July 18, which it was only able to repel on July 22.

Clinics and pharmacies

Stolichki and Neopharm pharmacies. On July 29, internal systems at Stolichki began to malfunction, forcing some locations to close. Neopharm pharmacies — part of the same holding company — also experienced shutdowns. Both chains reported being targeted by hackers and have yet to confirm full recovery.

Semeiny Doktor clinics. On July 29, the clinic network’s website stopped allowing users to book appointments or access their personal accounts. The parent company said Semeiny Doktor had been targeted in a hacker attack, but claimed no patient data had been leaked.

Medsi clinics. Russia’s largest private clinic network reported technical problems on July 7. According to Medsi, the outage lasted less than an hour. The Telegram channel Shot reported that the disruption forced many Medsi locations to stop patient intake, at least in Moscow.

Transportation and communications

AirNet provider. The St. Petersburg–based Internet provider reported on July 30 that its servers had come under a DDoS attack carried out by Ukrainian hackers from the IT Army of Ukraine.

Aeroflot airline. The internal systems of Russia’s largest airline stopped working on the morning of July 28. Hacker groups from Belarus and Ukraine claimed responsibility.

more on Aeroflot

• A ‘zoo’ of IT infrastructure How Aeroflot’s slow-moving transition to Russian-made software left it wide open to hackers

MTS and other telecom providers. On July 4, users reported Internet access issues affecting several major Russian telecom operators. Most complaints concerned MTS. The company did not explain the cause of the outage.

Banking

T-Bank (formerly Tinkoff). Users reported service disruptions on July 29, with over 1,500 complaints at one point. T-Bank acknowledged that “some customers may have experienced difficulties,” but did not specify the reason.

Alfa-Bank. Some users also reported issues with Alfa-Bank on July 29, although far fewer than with T-Bank. According to complaints posted on Downdetector, users also had trouble accessing Alfa-Bank services on July 24, though the bank said at the time that there were no outages.

Government services

Russian Post. Customers reported service issues on July 29. The state postal service denied the reports, stating: “Don’t panic — all Russian Post systems are operating normally! Website, mobile app — everything is reliable, secure, and under control.”

Gosuslugi government services portal. On July 28, users in several Russian regions were unable to access their personal accounts. Roskomnadzor said it had not recorded any DDoS attacks on the portal. The cause of the outage remains unclear.

Rosstat. The federal statistics agency’s website went offline on July 16 and was down for several days. On July 21, Rosstat announced that the site was back online — though only partially.

The Central Bank’s Faster Payments System. The system temporarily stopped working on July 10. Its operator attributed the outage to “an incident on the provider’s side.” That same day, users also reported access issues at Alfa-Bank, Ozon Bank, Yandex Bank, VTB, and Bank Saint Petersburg.

Social media and messaging apps

Telegram and WhatsApp. In the first week of July, Russian users noticed at least four instances when the country’s two most popular messaging apps went down simultaneously. Experts suggested Roskomnadzor may have been testing a possible block. Shortly afterward, the Russian authorities officially announced plans to block WhatsApp.

VKontakte. On July 3, users in Russia and abroad began reporting problems accessing the social network. Service was restored within a few hours. VKontakte did not explain the cause of the outage.

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