Russia blames telecom network accident for widespread internet outage
A massive outage affecting several online services in Russia was caused by issues on the main network of a telecom operator, Russia's internet regulator said Monday.
According to the regulator, Roskomnadzor, the incident has been resolved and services are being restored. In comments to state-owned media, the agency did not name the affected telecom operator, nor did it specify the cause of the incident.
Data from the internet monitoring service Downdetector shows that Russian users on Monday had trouble accessing popular online platforms such as Google, Yandex, Rutube, VKontakte, and Discord, as well as services from local banks and the country’s largest mobile operator, MTS.
Local users also reported disruptions in their mobile and cable internet, television, and several telecom services. Most of the complaints came from Moscow and concerned services provided by MTS, according to the Russian internet monitoring service. When contacted by local media, MTS declined to comment on the cause of the outages.
Most of the complaints about outages were reported on Monday afternoon. Since then, their number has decreased but some users are still unable to access services as of the time of writing.
Internet outages are common in Russia and are often deliberately caused by local authorities. In December, residents of several Russian regions experienced internet disruptions as the country’s internet regulator attempted to disconnect them from the global network and test the country’s so-called “sovereign internet” infrastructure.
During that time, users couldn’t access some foreign and local apps and websites, including Google, messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, and some services of Russian internet giant Yandex.
Russia is also deliberately slowing down YouTube loading speeds in response to Google’s refusal to comply with Russian tech regulations. The website’s traffic in Russia dropped to just 20% of its average in July, according to the latest reports.
The Kremlin also blocked access to popular messaging apps such as Viber, Signal, and Discord citing alleged legal violations.
Daryna Antoniuk
is a reporter for Recorded Future News based in Ukraine. She writes about cybersecurity startups, cyberattacks in Eastern Europe and the state of the cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia. She previously was a tech reporter for Forbes Ukraine. Her work has also been published at Sifted, The Kyiv Independent and The Kyiv Post.