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Russia Imposes 24-Hour Mobile Internet Blackout For Travelers Returning Home (therecord.media) 70

Posted by BeauHD from the temporary-blackouts dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Record: Russian telecom operators have begun cutting mobile internet access for 24 hours for citizens returning to the country from abroad, in what officials say is an effort to prevent Ukrainian drones from using domestic SIM cards for navigation. "When a SIM card enters Russia from abroad, the user has to confirm that it's being used by a person -- not installed in a drone," the Digital Development Ministry said in a statement earlier this week.

Users can restore access sooner by solving a captcha or calling their operator for identification. Authorities said the temporary blackout is meant to "ensure the safety of Russian citizens" and prevent SIM cards from being embedded in "enemy drones." The new rule has led to unexpected outages for residents in border regions, whose phones can automatically connect to foreign carriers. Officials advised users to switch to manual network selection to avoid being cut off.
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Russia Imposes 24-Hour Mobile Internet Blackout For Travelers Returning Home More

Russia Imposes 24-Hour Mobile Internet Blackout For Travelers Returning Home

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  • Full Confidence (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SlashbotAgent ( 6477336 ) on Friday November 14, 2025 @07:38PM (#65796524)

    I have full confidence that the Ukrainians can bypass this speed bump in no time at all.

    It's super easy to stop the drones. Withdraw!

    • Re: Full Confidence (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ArmoredDragon ( 3450605 ) on Friday November 14, 2025 @07:49PM (#65796562)

      Should be fairly simple Russia did offer a workaround, after all: Use two sim cards, don't permit the Russian one to contact towers outside of Russia. Fly it from outside using the other SIM.

      Yes, Russia is that incompetent. Always has been.

      Unless they're going to do something silly like locking out SIM cards of everybody who was out in the boonies for too long, or anybody who let their phone die without access to a charger for a while. In which case, lol, and you probably shouldn't take it into a big building either.

      Though there's an even better solution to this problem: Get the fuck out of Ukraine. If you didn't want to be on the wrong side of a drone strike maybe, just maybe you shouldn't be doing special military operations just to satisfy your leader's special needs.

      • Unless they're going to do something silly like locking out SIM cards of everybody who was out in the boonies for too long

        Yes, they are doing it, or at least that's the plan. If a SIM card was offline for 72 hours, it is also blocked, just like one returning from abroad.
        Mobile internet won't work for 24 hours unless you confirm that you are a human by solving a captcha.

        Are there ways around it? I'm sure there are, but it would make drone attacks a bit more difficult.

        At some point Russia will probably just disable mobile internet if you get closer than 300km to the border with Ukraine. It's not like Putin has to worry about his

        • Are there ways around it? I'm sure there are, but it would make drone attacks a bit more difficult.

          Barely. Shit, 3 hours is enough time to get a lot done, never mind 72. They don't even need to actually be in Russia for the duration, and that's without even relying on fault injection to extract any keys from the SIM. Close enough should suffice, and that doesn't necessarily depend on your physical location. Though...Russia should probably ban e-sim. If they don't, this whole thing is basically pointless. And if they do, Ivan with his Adidas track suit and apple watch will be sorely disappointed.

          The more

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Bumbul ( 7920730 )

        Should be fairly simple Russia did offer a workaround, after all: Use two sim cards, don't permit the Russian one to contact towers outside of Russia. Fly it from outside using the other SIM.

        Even easier is to use the other workaround given by russia, Use a warehouse near the border to manually connect sim cards to the russian network for a while, then move them to be used in the next batch of drones to be launched (if launched further away, activate the mobile connection only after the drone has reached russian network).

      • Perception is key. They know this won't stop the drones.
    • It also assumes that the stated reason for doing it is the actual reason, which given that it's the Russian government is a coin-toss at best. It could be that it takes the FSB 24 hours to set up interception on a new SIM inside Russia, for example.
  • are Ukrainian drones trying to attack them? There must be a reason for that?

  • What about visiting foreigners who want to use their foreign SIM card? Are they just shit out of luck? Does this new rule mean foreign SIM cards won't work?

    When i traveled abroad (not to Russia) a month ago, i just kept using the sim I already had, rather than getting a local one. Sounds like if I wanted to do that with Russia, I may be shit out of luck.

    Last time I was in Russia, I got a local SIM card, but it was a pain in the ass. I had to get a local to get it for me and then let me use it. Now I have

    • Yes, this was done to foreign cards a while ago, though it seems you can solve a captcha to get access faster.

      And getting a Russian SIM card is probably going to be more difficult because they do not want those cards to end up in Ukrainian drones.

  • Ukraine has no way around these security measures, not without having someone on the inside helping them...

    • Just thinking aloud.

      They had to get the cards initially anyhow in some form. So, now, use them for a bit, turn off device. Ship device to UA. Pilot drone on UA's modem until it gets to border, turn RU device back on... From the RU ISP's point of view, it was never outside RU. Just need a reasonably quick turn around I guess so that it wasn't off for more than a couple of days from RU's point of view... or re-program the drone on launch so that it uses a IMSI and SIM that were purchased but never actually ph

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      There are lots of insiders - both in russia itself, and especially in the occupied territory which russia considers its own.

  • So I have my attack drones land in the forest and wait 24 hours, then swarm attack the Kremlin. Or I use a link that doesn't involve the cellular network. Or I make the thing autonomous. Or I buy Russian SIM cards and install them in the drones.

    Seriously, how incompetent is the Russian government? They seriously need to lay off the vodka.

    • Re:Are you kidding me? (Score:4, Informative)

      by registrations_suck ( 1075251 ) on Friday November 14, 2025 @08:13PM (#65796604)

      Last time I was there, getting a SIM card was not so simple. You have to show your passport and proof of your place of registration (official residence). They're harder for foreigners to get than locals. I found it easier to get a local to get it for me than buy it myself.

      Getting them in mass quantities is not a trivial matter.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GbrDead ( 702506 )

        Getting them in mass quantities is not a trivial matter.

        The Russian society is extremely corrupt. So I wouldn't bet on this.

    • What if this is designed to make the population fully aware of how much at the mercy of their government they are?

    • Or I buy Russian SIM cards and install them in the drones.

      That's what Ukrainians have been doing.

      So, now, if the Russian SIM card is offline for 72 hours or had connected to a foreign tower, its access to mobile internet is blocked for 24 hours or until you solve a captcha.

  • Easy solution (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Friday November 14, 2025 @08:10PM (#65796594)

    Russia can withdraw from Ukraine and this wouldn’t be an issue.

  • Nevermind, it was just shitty AT&T 5G coverage as usual.

  • fringe roaming cuts both ways unless they set the boarder zone as boarder + XX miles as an must check area

  • so the drones chill for a day.

    • They also need a person that speaks Russian. ;D

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GbrDead ( 702506 )
        There are a few million Ukrainians in Russia. All of them speak Russian fluently. While many of them are undoubtedly Russophiles, if only 0.1% of them become spies for their country, you will still have thousands.

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