Over the past week, millions of Internet users in Russia have been unable to access the Russian Internet. Users in the capital Moscow reported on Tuesday that their banking apps, as well as service portals, news sites and social networks, were not working.
The Digital Ministry said the technical problems were resolved after a few hours. A specific reason for the breakdown was not given.
The ministry said a technical issue affected the .ru zone “related to the global DNSSEC infrastructure” (security mechanism). Experts had repeatedly warned that the creation of an independent Russian Internet, ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, would lead to failures. It is also planned to transfer all Russian Internet users to a national DNS server. Independent experts attributed the serious breakdown at the end of the month to these government interventions.
Thousands of websites blocked
As recently as January 24th, media reported internet problems in some parts of Russia’s far east. Accordingly, there were problems with using the social networks WhatsApp and Telegram for days. In other regions, authorities announced that the mobile internet would be switched off at night due to technical work. According to a report in the Kommersant newspaper, this could involve work on improving air defense to protect against Ukrainian drone attacks.
In the capital Moscow, disoriented taxi drivers repeatedly complain about navigation systems not working properly. But there are also many direct blocks of Internet portals. Russian authorities have blocked thousands of websites with non-state content. They are only accessible via protected connections via VPN servers.
Since the war in Ukraine began, people in Russia have been unable to obtain independent information about it. Many Western media sites, such as Deutsche Welle and the BBC, are blocked in Russia. But independent Russian media are also blocked, for example the news portal kasparov.ru run by former world chess champion Garry Kasparov. Even the website of the computer game Stalker 2, developed in Ukraine, cannot be accessed from Russia.
Many Russians circumvent website blocking by using VPN (Virtual Private Network) access. This means that you do not access a website directly, but rather take a detour, usually via another country. This means that the Internet provider does not recognize which website is being accessed and does not block access.
