Massive internet outage in Russia: Kremlin’s attempt to block messaging apps causes nationwide disruption
Russian users have reported issues accessing popular messaging apps like Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, and Skype. This appears to be a blockage by Russian authorities, analysts told the news outlet Agenstvo.Novosti. Roskomnadzor, the federal agency responsible for controlling the internet, attributed the problems to DDOS attacks targeting Russian telecom operators.
The problems, which began around 2 PM, impacted not only messaging apps but also Wikipedia, Yandex, VKontakte, telecom support services, and mobile banking apps, according to downtime tracking services. Issues were reported with at least 20 services monitored by Downdetector.su. The service "sboy.rf," typically used to track outages, was also down.
"This typically happens when they turn on the so-called 'anti-messenger mode'," said Mikhail Klimarev, director of the Internet Protection Society, to Agentsvo.Novosti. He noted similar issues occurred in Dagestan during riots, in Yakutia, and Bashkiria during protests. "I have a strong feeling something significant happened, but now on a federal level," Klimarev added.
Users from the Central Asian countries neighbouring Russia also reported problems with Telegram. Klimarev explained that network transit to these countries goes through Russia. He sees no other explanation besides actions taken by Russian authorities.
"It's clear from our observations that this is centralized interference," stated Sarsky Darbiyan, co-founder of Roskomsvoboda, to Agentsvo.Novosti. "Roskomnadzor seemed to be attempting to block Telegram, which then disrupted other resources in the RuNet. This scenario is identical to what happened in 2018," added Stanislav Shakirov, technical director of Roskomsvoboda and founder of Privacy Accelerator.
However, Roskomnadzor presented a different version. Its representative told the publication "Podem" that the service interruptions and messenger issues were due to a DDOS attack on Russian telecom operators. "As of 3 PM Moscow time, the attack has been repelled, and services are operating normally," the agency stated.
By 3 PM Moscow time, complaint figures about messaging service disruptions had started to decrease, according to Downdetector.su.
In June, the Kremlin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russia may limit the usage of WhatsApp as part of "anti-terrorism measures"