Mobile Internet switched off in Moscow
For a week now, mobile Internet and public Wi-Fi hotspots in central Moscow have been disrupted. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said the outages were due to security requirements. Up to now network shutdowns in the Russian capital were temporary, implemented during major events or when Ukrainian drones were detected in the city's airspace.
A silenced society
Novaya Gazeta sees the situation as the consequence of a repressive system that has spiralled out of control:
“The leader was promised long ago that all threats would be eliminated. This figure is known to not have much knowledge about the Internet and therefore agreed to all proposals. Now they are trying to make the best of it. Silently, because no one can ever explain in simple terms why it is needed. ... But the crucial aspect is that no one is asking these questions anymore. Because there is no one left who could ask them now that the the slowly boiled citizen frog no longer croaks but quietly and patiently adapts to what is happening. ... Fear, a banal survival instinct and years of apathy are having an effect.”
Back in the USSR
In a Telegram post picked up by Echo, journalist Leonid Parfyonov says Russia is now a totalitarian state:
“Russian freedom flourished on the internet: everyone built their own personal ecosystem that accompanied them always and everywhere. The state did not interfere; on the contrary, it behaved like a service provider online: here, use my government portals. Now that global social networks, Messenger, YouTube and the like are banned, everyone is being forced to download Max - it's like the compulsory subscription to Pravda in 1970. A fundamental step is being taken: from authoritarianism to totalitarianism. Just don't say afterwards that it came out of the blue.”
Disabling all that can be hacked
In a Facebook post, political scientist Nikolai Mitrokhin points to events at the beginning of the Iran war as the reason for Moscow's internet shutdown:
“Twelve days ago, Israel and the US destroyed almost the entire leadership of the Iranian junta by accessing the country's internet and observing the movements of the leaders in Tehran via surveillance cameras on the streets. Putin and the FSB reacted instinctively and quickly. They shut down the internet and will continue to shut down everything that can be used from outside the country in stages. And they will keep it shut down until they have created a completely sealed-off system that has been checked for any backdoors.”