Russian internet regulator blames telecom network for widespread outage

Russia’s internet regulator, Roskomnadzor has blamed a telecom network operator for the widespread internet outage experienced on Monday.

According to reports on 6 January, the regulator did not mention the affected network operator or the cause, but told local media that the issue had been resolved and online services were being restored.

What happened

Russian internet users on Monday reported difficulty accessing popular websites and platforms such as Google and Discord, etc.

Services from local banks and the country’s mobile operator, MTS were also interrupted, resulting in their mobile and cable internet, television, and other telecom services being disrupted.

In agreement with the internet regulator, the number of complaints have reduced at the time of writing this report, based on data from internet monitoring service Downdetector, suggesting that the services are gradually being restored.

Moscow was most hit by the outage, mostly reported by users of MTS service. The telecom provider however refused to comment on the matter when contacted.

Interestingly, this is just one of many times when internet outages hit Russia. In August last year, a similar outage was reported for Telegram and WhatsApp, as users of these platforms were unable to access them.

At the time, Roskomnadzor blamed a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyberattack targeting Russia’s telecom operators.

It’s hard to tell if this is true, because the government of Russia has been accused of deliberately shutting down the internet for different reasons, including testing their “sovereign internet” and restricting access to platforms due to regulatory violations.

Russian blockade

Russia has blocked several social media platforms due to alleged violations recently. One of them is Discord, which was blocked in October 2024 for violation allegations.

Roskomnadzor has also restricted access to Telegram for Russians in the past, but later lifted the restriction which was not effective as Russians continued to access and use the platform during the restriction.