When Russians reflect on 2025, many may remember it as the year the government tightened its hold over the country’s digital sphere. Months of mobile internet shutdowns—officially imposed to disrupt Ukrainian drone navigation—have created widespread disruption across dozens of regions, affecting everyday tasks from paying for public transport to accessing medical apps.
While home broadband and Wi-Fi connections remain largely unaffected, the loss of mobile data has been deeply destabilising. Since May, outages have persisted through summer and into autumn. In November alone, an average of 57 regions reported daily interruptions, according to Na Svyazi, an activist group tracking connectivity restrictions. The Kremlin maintains the measures are essential, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling them “absolutely justified and necessary.”
Analysts disagree. Kateryna Stepanenko from the Institute for the Study of War noted that Ukrainian drone attacks—particularly on Russian oil refineries—have continued unabated, raising questions about the efficacy of the shutdowns.
A tightly controlled list of allowed sites
During blackout periods, mobile users are limited to a government-approved “white list” of websites and applications. The list varies by telecom operator but typically includes government portals, some email and social media services, two e-commerce platforms and Yandex, Russia’s dominant search engine. Access to banking apps is inconsistent, with some operators permitting them and others not. Despite officials promising to expand the list, its uneven application has only added to user confusion.
For many Russians, the restrictions have become an unnerving glimpse of a more regulated future. Marina, a resident of Vladivostok, said she was alarmed when an outage left her able to use only a single app—belonging to a state-controlled bank. “The loss of information, the loss of freedom… that is the most depressing thing,” she said.
In Ulyanovsk, a man found himself unable to pay a tram fare because the card terminal failed to connect during an outage. Without cash, he was stranded.
Health risks for families
The shutdowns have had serious consequences for families of diabetic children. Many rely on mobile-connected glucose-monitoring apps to track blood sugar fluctuations while children are at school. Parents warn that outages disrupt real-time alerts that could prevent dangerous spikes or drops, increasing medical risks.
Authorities have attempted to soften public frustration by reframing the blackouts. Roskomnadzor, the internet regulator, shared a cartoon portraying a young man looking forlornly at his phone, contrasted with a cheerful image of him walking through a park with a book and a coffee—a push for “mindful living” amid forced disconnection.
New SIM restrictions trigger backlash
Fresh rules introduced in the autumn have fuelled further anger. A new regulation imposes a 24-hour “cooling period” on SIM cards that were either used abroad or inactive for 72 hours, during which all mobile data and texting services are blocked. Users can reactivate the SIM only by clicking a texted link—impossible on devices without messaging interfaces, including portable Wi-Fi routers, heating boilers, vehicle systems and electricity meters.
Lawmaker Andrei Svintsov questioned whether authorities understood the implications. “Does this mean they’ll all die? All the heating boilers will shut down, and all the Chinese cars will stop working? This is a massive problem,” he warned.
WhatsApp and Telegram throttled
The restrictions also target Russia’s most widely used messaging apps. WhatsApp and Telegram, which had around 96 million and 91 million monthly users respectively in October, have faced throttling and call limitations since August, ostensibly to combat phone scams. Some regions have seen temporary full blocks. Yelena from Krasnodar said her team’s work ground to a halt in October when Telegram became completely inaccessible.
Neither app is included in the government’s white lists. Instead, officials are promoting MAX, a Russian-built messaging service that openly states it will share user data with authorities on request and does not offer end-to-end encryption. Since September, smartphone manufacturers have been required to preinstall MAX on all devices sold in Russia.
Its developers claim around 50 million registrations, but Mediascope data shows far lower daily usage—18.9 million, compared with WhatsApp’s 81 million and Telegram’s 68 million. Despite pressure, many citizens refuse to adopt it. “I don’t plan to install it,” said Marina. Others echoed the same sentiment to AP.
A slow tightening of control
Pollster Denis Volkov of the Levada Centre said many Russians view the restrictions like bad weather: unpleasant but unavoidable. The government’s strategy, he suggested, aims to make access to “alternative content” sufficiently cumbersome that people eventually give up seeking it.
