Russian users reported widespread service disruptions on Tuesday, according to Russian media.
The outage reportedly affected telecommunications 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 such platforms as data sources that do not convey the pro-Kremlin narrative conveyed through classic state news agencies.
Some Telegram outlets speculated that Roskomnadzor, the Kremlin’s media watchdog guilty of censorship in the country, was possibly 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, Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta wrote that Russian citizens were having difficulties with platforms such as 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.
Telegram News outlet said experts told them that the shutdown could have simply been the result of measures taken through Roskomnadzor.
Roskomnadzor later told the state-controlled outlet RIA Novosti that the internet had been restored while explaining the failure as a “short-term disruption in connectivity.”
Anton Gerashchenko, former Deputy Minister of the Interior of Ukraine, posted on .
After noting that people reported other online services as well as mobile operators were not working, Gerashchenko said the Russian search engine Yandex was reportedly still online.
“According to reports on social networks, 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 couriers were not affected by the outage. “
The press service of Roskomnadzor informed Tass: “A short interruption in connectivity was detected. The operation of the network was temporarily restored through the function of the Monitoring and Control Center of the Public Communications Network. “
The Mash Telegram channel reported that Roskomnadzor’s press service said it looking to identify the cause of the outage.
Jon Jackson is an editor at Newsweek based in New York. It focuses on reporting on the war in Ukraine and Russia. Jon has previously worked for The Week, River Journal, Den of Geek and Maxim. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with honors in journalism and mass communications from New York University. Languages: English.