Overview
- Large areas of central Moscow continue to face intermittent to near‑total mobile outages, with foreign websites blocked on many phones Friday and voice service cut at times.
- The restrictions, first reported around March 5–6, have no announced end date as the Kremlin says they will remain in place as long as needed to ensure citizens’ safety.
- Authorities are trialing access limited to government‑approved sites and apps, yet even whitelisted services such as banking and taxi platforms repeatedly failed during the disruptions.
- Early estimates put business losses at roughly 3–5 billion rubles in the first five days as card payments, ATMs, parking meters and delivery operations reliant on mobile data stalled.
- Residents are turning to low‑tech workarounds, with retailers reporting surging sales of walkie‑talkies (~27%), pagers (~73%) and printed maps (up to ~170%), while officials discuss tighter VPN curbs as part of broader sovereign‑internet plans.