Moscow. The Russian government is dictating which websites citizens may access and which they may not. To that end, the authorities are deploying sophisticated network filters that approve or block access to individual sites at the level of infrastructure. Unwanted websites are therefore no longer accessible within a given region via any local provider. The technology behind the system is familiar from other authoritarian states, including China and Iran, where the internet has long been reshaped into a form of national intranet. Russia appears to be pursuing the same objective. The government decides and controls what users are permitted to see.
In Moscow, the filters have recently entered a testing phase. Since 6 March, mobile internet in the capital has been intermittently disrupted. In recent days, residents of the city – home to around 13 million people – have at times been unable to pay bills, order a taxi or send messages to colleagues via mobile networks. The transition to the new system is complex and has required temporary shutdowns of network access. Some areas of the city remain offline.
A real dystopia
‘If you ask us how long these measures will remain in place, then for as long as new measures are required to ensure the security of our citizens,’ said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Citizens, he added, could be certain that safeguarding security remained the highest priority.
The English edition of El País remarked that the phrasing was worthy of a dystopian novel. The description is not misplaced. Residents of St Petersburg were also informed this week that mobile networks there would be shut down. The official explanation is that the measure is intended to protect against Ukrainian drone attacks, which are said to use mobile towers for navigation. The same justification has been cited for months across Russia in connection with network restrictions.
Behind the measures are tests designed to evaluate so-called ‘whitelist’ systems, which allow access exclusively to government-approved websites. Any site not included on the list becomes inaccessible. Once fully implemented, only pre-approved Russian platforms – including social media, news websites, marketplaces, taxi and delivery apps, telecommunications services and government portals – will remain available.
The intention is that these services will continue to function even when mobile internet is restricted. In this way, the authorities can limit network access at any time without significantly disrupting everyday life. What remains restricted at all times, however, is the ability to obtain information independently.
Foreign sites remain blocked
To be included on the whitelist, companies must meet strict requirements. These include routing all data traffic exclusively through Russian infrastructure. Servers must be operated domestically, and it must be ensured that users cannot conceal their IP addresses. Such a framework effectively excludes foreign platforms and imposes a monitoring obligation on any service seeking to remain accessible. The mobile network is being restructured first; fixed-line networks are expected to follow.
Russia has been rolling out the system region by region since at least last summer. It has drawn particular attention in Moscow, the country’s most internationally visible region, where foreign nationals are most likely to reside.
The authorities have not officially confirmed the expansion. There has been no formal statement from Roskomnadzor, the Ministry of Digital Development or any telecommunications operator. However, a source within the Ministry of Digital Development told the business daily RBC that the outages in Moscow are part of a test of the capability to block access to websites outside the ‘whitelist’. Similar tests have been under way in other regions for some time and have now reached the capital.