Russian users reported widespread service disruptions on Tuesday, according to Russian media.
The outage reportedly affected access to telecom companies and online platforms.
Messaging apps like Telegram and some independent news sites have played a huge role in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Millions of people in Russia and elsewhere rely on those platforms as data resources that do not convey the pro-Kremlin narrative. disseminated through the classic state news agencies.
Some Telegram outlets speculated that Roskomnadzor, the Kremlin’s media watchdog guilty of censorship in the country, may have been responsible for Tuesday’s blackout. Newsweek was unable to independently determine those claims and contacted Roskomnadzor via email for comment.
Independent Russian media outlet Meduza reported that monitoring site Downdetector. su showed outages affecting consumers of cell phone providers such as Megafon, MTS, Rostelecom and Tele2.
Meanwhile, the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta wrote that people inside Russia were having trouble accessing platforms like Google, YouTube, Telegram, WhatsApp and TikTok.
Russia’s state-controlled news firm Tass reported that thousands of court cases were filed Tuesday over outages of mobile operators and web services. Rostelecom, Russia’s largest virtual provider, said the outage was not similar to that of its networks, according to Tass.
Media outlet Telegram Agency News said experts told them the closure could have simply been the result of measures taken through Roskomnadzor.
Roskomnadzor later told state media RIA Novosti that the system had been restored, explaining the failure as a “short-term disruption in connectivity. “
Anton Gerashchenko, former Deputy Minister of the Interior of Ukraine, posted on .
Noting that other online and cellphone operators were not working, Gerashchenko said the Russian search engine Yandex would still be online.
“According to social media reports, some users say that only Yandex works: the search engine provides answers to queries, but you only have to click on the links,” Gerashchenko wrote. “Interestingly, it appears that messengers were not affected by the outage. “
The press service of Roskomnadzor told Tass: “A short-term disruption in connectivity was detected. Network operation was promptly restored by the duty services of the Center for Monitoring and Control of the Public Communications Network.”
The Mash Telegram channel reported Roskomnadzor’s press service said it was trying to establish the cause of the outage.
Jon Jackson is an editor at Newsweek, founded in New York City. It focuses on reporting on the war in Ukraine and Russia. Jon has worked in the past for The Week, River Journal, Den of Geek, and Maxim. She graduated Summa Laude with Honors in Journalism and Mass Communication from New York University. Languages: English.