Running from Wi‑Fi to Wi‑Fi. How Russian regions live under mobile internet shutdowns

“Nights and late evenings are the scariest.” Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog

In Rostov-on-Don, located just 50 miles from the occupied territories of the Donetsk region and relatively close to the front, mobile internet blackouts began in mid-summer, recalls 21-year-old Maria. At first, this mainly affected the city centre, home to the Southern Military District headquarters, but the restrictions gradually expanded in both geography and duration. While the shutdowns used to begin at 7-8 p.m., they can now strike as early as 4 p.m.

“You can’t order a taxi, you can’t see where the bus is, messages don’t get through anywhere, and no services work at all,” she recalls of the summer months. “And if you manage to catch Wi-Fi somewhere to order a taxi home, the prices can surge by two or three times.” According to her, taxi drivers had “spawn points” near open Wi-Fi hotspots, to which they would return to pick up orders. 

“Nights and late evenings are the scariest. When you finish work at 10 p.m. and live on the other side of town, you realise that if something happens, God forbid, you have no way to contact your family at all,” she says. 

This year, Maria moved to Taganrog, 60km to the west. There, mobile internet “lasted longer,” but is now being cut as well. “It’s scary in both Rostov and Taganrog, especially in poorly lit areas,” she says. Maria adds that issues often arise with standard mobile calls, too. Following the introduction of “whitelists,” people began to use the VKontakte social network, known for its close ties to the authorities, for communication. 

With darkness now falling earlier, the fear has intensified. “If I’m out on the street in the evening, for some reason all kinds of crazy people come up to me, try to strike up a conversation, harass me somehow. Because we’re on the border, a lot of soldiers return [from the front via Taganrog]. Almost all of them have PTSD. Just recently, a drunk soldier harassed me. I realised I wasn’t even out that late, it’s just getting dark earlier. But what about children walking home from school in the dark? Who knows if something might happen to them? They won’t even be able to send a message to their mom or dad.” 

Maria notes that mobile internet shutdowns do not protect against drones: strikes both on Taganrog and Rostov continue. She believes that restrictions only do harm. Neither she nor her friends support internet shutdowns, only the most ardent supporters of the war are in favour of them. 

“We still don’t understand how to navigate this, or how to escape it, even though we’ve been living like this for about six months. It seems we’ve got used to it—it’s actually hard to remember life before the blackouts,” she concludes.

“Give us back our internet, you bitches!” Bryansk

At the end of August, 19-year-old Anton posted a TikTok video of himself going out into the yard at night and shouting into the darkness: “Give us back our internet, you bitches!”

He told Mediazona that mobile internet shutdowns began in mid-May, and by September there was almost no connection at all. 

“In some places, it still worked, but there weren’t many of those,” he said. The recollections of Anastasia, a 23-year-old local resident, are very similar: “It only worked in popular places in Bryansk, such as Partizan Square, Lenin Square, and the Kurgan [memorial complex].” 

Anton says it became more difficult to stay in touch with family and friends, and most stores stopped accepting cashless payments. At first, locals simply looked for places with internet access. Both Mediazona interviewees say that “whitelists” were later introduced in the region, but according to Anton, they do not work very well.

“Right now, I can’t say exactly how to get around [the shutdowns], because that would be advertising VPN, which is banned in Russia,” he notes. Anastasia says she has a special VPN that allows her to bypass the “whitelists.” 

Anton and Anastasia disagree on whether internet shutdowns help against drones. “In my opinion, the city has become calmer without the drones,” says Anastasia. According to Anton, there are more drones now, but he doubts that this has anything to do with the internet.

“We live by running from Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi.” Krasnodar

“It’s only difficult at first because you’re not used to it,” says 18-year-old Katerina. She is from Omsk, but has been living in Krasnodar for the last few years. She says, mobile internet in the city has been turned off since June, often at night, from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. 

Dmitry, a 34-year-old resident of Krasnodar, recalls that at first it was very difficult to pay for purchases and call a taxi. He tells a story that happened to his friend: he goes to a gym on the other side of town, and in June, the internet shutdown caught him right after his workout. 

“It turned out that there was no connection at all. No phone, no internet. It was around midnight. And he had to walk along Turgenev Street and then along Dzerzhinsky Street to the Krasnaya Ploshchad shopping centre. That’s about 10 kilometers. After working on his feet in the gym.” 

At the shopping centre, Dmitry’s friend was able to call his relatives and ask them to call a taxi, which cost a fortune: “The drivers had stopped working and the prices had skyrocketed.” 

At first, locals resorted to using SIM cards from different operators: “One of them would work every now and then.” Taxi drivers did the same; now they use apps from “whitelists,” which include Yandex.Taxi. 

Neither Dmitry nor Katerina use VPNs, as they believe that they do not help with “whitelists.” “Maybe there is a VPN that works, but I don’t know of one,” Dmitry clarifies. “We live by running from Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi,” he sums up. 

Katerina now always carries her bank card with her because payments via the QR code quick payment system do not always work. They also carry cash, just in case. 

Katerina used to communicate mainly on Telegram, but has now switched to VKontakte because it’s included in the “whitelist” and can be used to make calls and send messages. Like other Mediazona interviewees, she sees it as an alternative to the MAX messenger, which is actively promoted by the state. 

Local residents have also begun to note locations where Wi-Fi is available. For example, guest networks have appeared at Ozon delivery points. Katerina has also started carrying a sketchbook with her, as the internet can suddenly disappear, and “you have to keep yourself busy with something.”

“This nonsense has been going on for about a month now.” Regions far away from the front

At the end of July, Katerina traveled to her native Omsk region and encountered internet restrictions there as well. “In Omsk, it started at the end of spring. They shut it down after 8 or 9 p.m. until 10 a.m. In some areas, at some [train] stations, there is no internet at all, only calls and text messages are available.” At the same time, there have been no systematic shutdowns in the neighboring Novosibirsk region so far. “The blocking of messengers is more painful,” a local resident told Mediazona. 

Alexei from the Tyumen region complains about the constant lack of mobile internet: “This nonsense has been going on steadily for about a month now. Before that, such incidents lasted a couple of days, for example, on Russia Day,” he says. 

According to Alexei, only websites from the “whitelist” work in the center of Tyumen, but the situation is better on the outskirts. Before leaving home, he tries to reply to all messages on Telegram, since the next connection will only be available at a Wi-Fi hotspot. 

Yaroslav, a resident of Yekaterinburg, says that mobile internet is turned off in the city at night — from midnight to six or seven in the morning — so it doesn’t cause much inconvenience. 25-year-old Angelina wasn’t too bothered by the shutdowns either, but she installed a second VPN: one for her mobile phone and the other for her home internet.

“What worries me most is that you’re riding in a taxi at night with a driver, and suddenly you have no internet, no connection, nothing. And I have no idea who this driver is,” she adds. 

Residents of Udmurtia have also complained about systemic mobile internet shutdowns. The author of one of the TikTok videos on this topic told Mediazona that he bypasses the restrictions using a special VPN. He has encountered “extra expenses for VPN, time spent connecting, time spent contacting someone for work, transferring money.” At the same time, he notes that he has already gotten used to the shutdowns. 

Ilya, 19, from the Arkhangelsk region, says that internet access has been gradually declining, and now restrictions can last for more than a day. 

“Only calls, VKontakte, Yandex.Music, and the browser worked. You couldn’t click on links in the browser, you couldn’t get information from links,” he recalls the recent shutdowns. 

Ilya has heard about VPNs to bypass the shutdowns, but he does not use them himself: “I don’t bypass them in any way, I just wait until they give me internet access, or I go to places like cafes where there is Wi-Fi. In general, I dislike mobile internet shutdowns. You can’t communicate except by phone. You can’t watch anything, there’s nothing to do, you just have to sleep or go for a walk. If you don’t have anything downloaded, you can’t even listen to music.” He doesn’t have land line internet at home. 

“The shawarma app worked.” St. Petersburg 

In early December, 27-year-old Anton from St. Petersburg was unable to get to work due to mobile internet disruptions: the local transport app “Podorozhnik” simply stopped working. 

“I had to steal a ride on the bus, hoping that they would just let me into the metro, but it didn’t work. I couldn’t buy a token, so I worked from home. My colleagues were generally humorous and understanding about the reason for my absence,” he says. 

Independent local outlet Bumaga noted that in addition to the Ministry of Digital Development, communication operators also have their own “whitelists,” and each one varies slightly. Anton suggests that businesses lobby for their services, so on the day of the outage, he was able to order food: “The shawarma app worked, and I was able to place and pick up an order there.” 

During a shutdown, he says, “only most of the ‘whitelist’ works and practically nothing else. The internet seems to be there, but when you try to open anything, the app says ‘no network connection’ or something like that.” Anton calls information about ways to circumvent such restrictions “legends.”

“Only mobile communications are not working. I have wired internet at home and at work, and if there are problems between home and work, I read a book or just listen to music,” he adds. 

Residents of Moscow and the Moscow region surveyed by Mediazona said that they had not yet encountered the same problems with mobile internet as residents of other regions. The biggest inconvenience so far has been the blocking of popular messaging apps. “I share my VPN with my retired neighbors and tell them how to install and use it,” says one of Mediazona’s interviewees.

Editor: Maxim Litavrin