Moscow businesses struggle as Russia restricts cellphone internet services
MOSCOW (AP) — Several foreign websites were blocked on mobile phones in central Moscow on Friday. restrictions It has gripped the Russian capital for more than a week, disrupting the routines of millions of residents and crashing businesses that rely on mobile phone internet.
Russian officials said the restrictions were part of security measures to prevent the attack. Ukrainian drone attacks, but many industry experts suspect they are part of authorities’ preparations to block Russians from accessing the global network if the Kremlin decides to do so.
Previous intermittent closures recorded The situation, which has been happening in dozens of Russian regions for months, has led some Moscow residents to turn to long-forgotten devices such as walkie-talkies, pagers and media players.
The shutdowns are part of a multifaceted effort by authorities to rein in the internet. They adopted restrictive laws and banned websites and platforms that did not comply with them. The technology has also been perfected for monitoring and managing online traffic.
After President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Government blocks major social media Sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Last year, Russia’s communications watchdog announced this. restrict popular messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram.
At the same time, authorities actively promoted a “national” messaging app called MAX, which critics saw as a surveillance tool.
Mobile internet outages in Moscow, which were first reported in some outskirts of the capital on March 5, also affected the city center earlier this week. There have been connection outages in many regions since May.
During the outages, a number of government-approved Russian websites and online services were designated and made available as being on “whitelists”. But during mobile phone internet outages in Moscow this week, even whitelisted government services, leading banks and taxi apps stopped working.
Businesses with broadband access and citizens using broadband at home were not affected.
However, the owners of cafes, restaurants and shops in Moscow based on mobile Internet suffered huge losses due to the inability of customers to pay for the services. ATMs and parking meters connected to mobile phone internet stopped working.
Taxi apps gave customers the option to call a taxi by phone and pay in cash.
At some moments, not only the mobile phone’s internet connection, but also the mobile phone’s call coverage was completely cut off.
Earlier this week, members of the Kremlin-controlled parliament reported an almost complete lack of mobile internet in the lower building, located just a few hundred meters (yards) from Red Square.
Russian websites and some mobile apps were available in central Moscow on Friday, but some observers saw foreign websites blocked as part of dress rehearsals to cut off access to the internet.
The daily economic newspaper Kommersant published an estimate earlier in the week that businesses in Moscow had lost 3 to 5 billion rubles (about $38 million to $63 million) due to the five-day closure. Other estimates were significantly higher.
Media reports stated that retailers recorded a rapid increase in demand for pagers, portable radios, landline phones and media players as lockdowns took place in Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the latest mobile phone internet blackout in Moscow was “fully legal” and would last “as long as additional measures are necessary to ensure the safety of our citizens.”
The recently approved law obliges Russian internet providers to shut down mobile internet if authorities declare it necessary for security reasons.
When asked why the shutdowns in Moscow were happening now, Peskov replied that as Ukraine “launches more and more sophisticated attack methods, more technologically advanced measures are needed to ensure public safety.”
He said the government would look for ways to compensate businesses for losses resulting from the closures, but did not provide details.
