Mobile internet is disappearing on a large scale in Ural and Siberia. Users in Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg and other cities are reporting disruptions.

Source: The Moscow Times, an independent Amsterdam-based news outlet

Details: Residents of dozens of Russian cities, including Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Tagil and Krasnoyarsk, are reporting complete or partial mobile internet outages.

According to information from Downdetector, over 8,000 complaints have been received in the past 24 hours alone. People are unable to use basic services: paying for transport, ordering deliveries, calling a taxi, or opening apps.

In Krasnoyarsk, disruptions have been ongoing since 26 July. Mobile operators claim the issues are not due to their infrastructure but are the result of restrictions imposed by the authorities for security reasons. As a result, taxi fares have tripled and navigation systems are unable to calculate routes correctly without internet access.

Local authorities refuse to comment. The censorship authority Roskomnadzor is also not responding to enquiries, and instead of hearing the phone ringing, callers are put on hold and hear the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”.

Since May, Russia has been actively jamming mobile communications due to “risks from Ukrainian UAVs”. At the time, the measures were explained by preparations for the Victory Day, a Russian holiday commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, celebrated on 9 May. Since then, the shutdowns have become regular, even in regions far from the battlefield, such as Sakhalin, Kamchatka and Primorye.

A record number of internet shutdowns was recorded in July – disruptions affected 77 regions. Russian deputies advised citizens to “get used to it”, because “security is more important than comfort”.

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