Millions Face Mobile Internet Outages in Moscow. 'Digital Crackdown' Feared (cnn.com) 54
13 million people live in Moscow, reports CNN.
But since early March the city "has experienced internet and mobile service outages on a level previously unseen." (Though Wi-Fi access to the internet is still available...) Russian social media "is flooded with jokes and memes about sending letters by carrier pigeons or using smartphones as ping-pong paddles..." [Moscow residents] complain they cannot navigate around the center or use their favorite mobile apps. The interruptions appear to have had a knock-on effect of making it more difficult to make voice calls or send an SMS. Some are panic-buying walkie-talkies, paper maps, and even pagers.
The latest shutdown builds on similar efforts around the country. For months, mobile internet service interruptions have hit Russia's regions, particularly in provinces bordering Ukraine, which has staged incursions and launched strikes inside Russian territory to counter Russia's full-scale invasion. Some regions have reported not having any mobile internet since summer. But the most recent outages have hit the country's main centers of wealth and power: Moscow and Russia's second city, St. Petersburg.
Public officials claim the blackout of mobile internet service in the capital and other regions is part of a security effort to counter "increasingly sophisticated methods" of Ukrainian attack... Speculation centers on whether the authorities are testing their ability to clamp down on public protest in the case there's an effort to reintroduce unpopular mobilization measures to find fresh manpower for the war in Ukraine; whether mobile internet outages may precede a more sweeping digital blackout; or if the new restrictions reflect an atmosphere of heightened fear and paranoia inside the Kremlin as it watches US-led regime- change efforts unfold against Russian allies such as Venezuela and Iran... On Wednesday, Russian mobile providers sent notifications that there would be "temporary restrictions" on mobile internet in parts of Moscow for security reasons, Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti reported. The measures will last "for as long as additional measures are needed to ensure the safety of our citizens," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on March 11...
As well as banning many social media platforms, Russia blocks calling features on messenger apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram. Roskomnadzor, the country's communications regulator, has introduced a "white list" of approved apps... Russia has also tested what it calls the "sovereign internet," a network that is effectively firewalled from the rest of the world. The disruptions are fueling broader concerns about tightening state control. In parallel with the internet shutdown, the Kremlin has also been pushing to impose a state-controlled messaging app called Max as the country's main portal for state services, payments and everyday communication. There has been speculation the Kremlin may be planning to ban Telegram, Russia's most widely used messaging app, entirely. Roskomnadzor said that it was restricting Telegram for allegedly failing to comply with Russian laws.
"Russia has opened a criminal case against me for 'aiding terrorism,'" Telegram's Russian-born founder Pavel Durov said on X last month. "Each day, the authorities fabricate new pretexts to restrict Russians' access to Telegram as they seek to suppress the right to privacy and free speech...."
The article includes this quote from Mikhail Klimarev, head of the Internet Protection Society and an expert on Russian internet freedom. "In any situation when they (the authorities) perceive some kind of danger for themselves and accept the belief that the internet is dangerous for them, even if it may not be true, they will shut it down," he said. "Just like in Iran."
But since early March the city "has experienced internet and mobile service outages on a level previously unseen." (Though Wi-Fi access to the internet is still available...) Russian social media "is flooded with jokes and memes about sending letters by carrier pigeons or using smartphones as ping-pong paddles..." [Moscow residents] complain they cannot navigate around the center or use their favorite mobile apps. The interruptions appear to have had a knock-on effect of making it more difficult to make voice calls or send an SMS. Some are panic-buying walkie-talkies, paper maps, and even pagers.
The latest shutdown builds on similar efforts around the country. For months, mobile internet service interruptions have hit Russia's regions, particularly in provinces bordering Ukraine, which has staged incursions and launched strikes inside Russian territory to counter Russia's full-scale invasion. Some regions have reported not having any mobile internet since summer. But the most recent outages have hit the country's main centers of wealth and power: Moscow and Russia's second city, St. Petersburg.
Public officials claim the blackout of mobile internet service in the capital and other regions is part of a security effort to counter "increasingly sophisticated methods" of Ukrainian attack... Speculation centers on whether the authorities are testing their ability to clamp down on public protest in the case there's an effort to reintroduce unpopular mobilization measures to find fresh manpower for the war in Ukraine; whether mobile internet outages may precede a more sweeping digital blackout; or if the new restrictions reflect an atmosphere of heightened fear and paranoia inside the Kremlin as it watches US-led regime- change efforts unfold against Russian allies such as Venezuela and Iran... On Wednesday, Russian mobile providers sent notifications that there would be "temporary restrictions" on mobile internet in parts of Moscow for security reasons, Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti reported. The measures will last "for as long as additional measures are needed to ensure the safety of our citizens," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on March 11...
As well as banning many social media platforms, Russia blocks calling features on messenger apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram. Roskomnadzor, the country's communications regulator, has introduced a "white list" of approved apps... Russia has also tested what it calls the "sovereign internet," a network that is effectively firewalled from the rest of the world. The disruptions are fueling broader concerns about tightening state control. In parallel with the internet shutdown, the Kremlin has also been pushing to impose a state-controlled messaging app called Max as the country's main portal for state services, payments and everyday communication. There has been speculation the Kremlin may be planning to ban Telegram, Russia's most widely used messaging app, entirely. Roskomnadzor said that it was restricting Telegram for allegedly failing to comply with Russian laws.
"Russia has opened a criminal case against me for 'aiding terrorism,'" Telegram's Russian-born founder Pavel Durov said on X last month. "Each day, the authorities fabricate new pretexts to restrict Russians' access to Telegram as they seek to suppress the right to privacy and free speech...."
The article includes this quote from Mikhail Klimarev, head of the Internet Protection Society and an expert on Russian internet freedom. "In any situation when they (the authorities) perceive some kind of danger for themselves and accept the belief that the internet is dangerous for them, even if it may not be true, they will shut it down," he said. "Just like in Iran."
That explains it (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot is so peaceful and quiet today.
Re:That explains it (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot is so peaceful and quiet today.
+5 Insightfunny.
"Public officials claim the blackout of mobile internet service in the capital and other regions is part of a security effort to counter "increasingly sophisticated methods" of Ukrainian attack..." Know how to fix that? Recall the troops back to the Russian side of the border. Aside from loss-of-face, virtually every aspect of Russian life would improve as a result.
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That will, unfortunately, not happen as long as putler lives, because he considers this war existential. And nobody else calls the shots there.
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Re:That explains it (Score:4, Funny)
making everyone use state chats he can read.
Just start sending strings of random numbers. Putin's paranoia will go through the roof.
I miss Russian numbers stations on the shortwave.
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What should make him more paranoid is the way these state surveillance systems tend to be used against the state by foreign spies. The fact that Ukraine uses Russian security cameras, some owned by Russia's own military, to ensure targets were hit, should say a lot about that.
Re:That explains it (Score:4, Informative)
Possibly, but I don't think so. Russians have a very, very high tolerance for tyrants and corruption. It's in their culture, and has been for 800 years, ever since they began paying tribute to the Golden Horde. The lessons and values from the renaissance and the enlightenment mean nothing to them.
Re: That explains it (Score:2)
No, there's no guarantee of anything for Putler. He's probably fucked, even. But the regime lives with or without him. There's nobody anywhere near the top who wants anything to change, Putler has already made sure of that.
They had a rare chance with Gorbachev, who was an idealist who believed that once a country has experienced socialism long enough, it will never return to capitalism. Basically what Karl Marx believed -- end democracy, free speech, individual liberties of any kind until sufficient time ha
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Possibly, but I don't think so. Russians have a very, very high tolerance for tyrants and corruption. It's in their culture, and has been for 800 years, ever since they began paying tribute to the Golden Horde. The lessons and values from the renaissance and the enlightenment mean nothing to them.
Russians do not mind a boot on their neck, so long as it's a Russian boot.
I've recently started to read a translation of Tsushima by Alexsey Novikov-Priboy. He was a sailor in the Imperial Russian Navy at the battle of Tsushima (1905 for those playing along at home) and it does a really good job of explaining why people supported Communism, it wasn't that Communism was good, even back then people knew it wasn't but the system in place was even worse. Unaccountable leaders, the wealthy being untouchable,
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The word they use for this is "vranyo".
Though to be fair, the west has its own vranyo, namely international law. We always talk about it like it holds some kind of weight, but does it really? Mmmm... I'd say no. If it did, the west would have intervened in Ukraine a long time ago. The ICC is too for that matter -- even one of the signatories of that hosted Putler, violating their treaty, and no consequences to be seen. The only time we ever do anything with these at all is during recrimination immediately f
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"vranyo" is not some special concept, it is simply a colloquial term for a lie. Similar to the English word "bullshit" in this regard, but far less vulgar.
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"vranyo" is not some special concept, it is simply a colloquial term for a lie. Similar to the English word "bullshit" in this regard, but far less vulgar.
That would depend on which anglophone culture you're from. To Brits and Australians the word "bullshit" is not that vulgar, we've far, far more vulgar language.
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I am well aware, but "vranyo" is not vulgar at all, hence "bullshit", as a faecal word, is inherently more vulgar, even in a society where the word "cunt" can be used as a stand-in for "buddy".
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That will, unfortunately, not happen as long as putler lives, because he considers this war existential. And nobody else calls the shots there.
He's very, very right about it being existential. If Ukraine loses, that's the end of Ukraine. If Ukraine doesn't lose, even if Russia doesn't win, that's the end of Putler. He's well aware of this.
But I think there's more going on here than most people realize:
- The telegram ban was, IMO, to make it harder for Russians soldiers to defect to Ukraine
- The mobile internet ban likely does two things:
1) Prevent VPN based circumvention of the above
2) A prediction I made back in November: https://slashdot.org/com [slashdot.org]
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I personally think it is simpler than that - he transforms the country into a museum of his youth, trying to turn time 50 years back. He doesn't use internet or smartphones, doesn't trust those and everything he mistrust must be prohibited anyway.
Re: That explains it (Score:1)
Apparently they're bringing soviet era payphones back, so there's that. Though they're going back further than that. Russia has basically already deindustrialized, so a bit further back than 50 years. Once the war ends, regardless of outcome, their economy completely collapses.
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Or the likes of Patrushev.
It may very well be his own ultranationalist circle that puts a knife in his back because of his failures. But that would not be a guarantee of improvement.
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That will, unfortunately, not happen as long as putler lives, because he considers this war existential.
It is, for him.
And nobody else calls the shots there.
If the Oligarchs don't get their payout from this war, you're going to see that's not true. Money calls the shots everywhere.
Re: That explains it (Score:1)
Shh!
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Death didn't come for Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris went for Death!
Unfortunately troll farms were not distupted... (Score:2)
State troll farms are not disrupted - operating as normal.
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WiFi access works according to the summary.
So presumably landline (DSL, Cable, Fibre, etc) connections still work. If the bots are using different mobile phones to get multiple IPs, etc, I guess they will have a problem.
But I doubt they will forget to "whitelist" the bots. :(
Ironic... (Score:1)
Meanwhile in Ukraine... (Score:3)
How is that war going? One would think that Putin would have an advantage, given that US attention, and that of much of the world, is exclusively on Iran
Once the islamic regime falls, there goes Russia's gateway to the Indian Ocean, where Iran served as a land bridge. Maybe they should start talking to Reza Pahlavi and working out, say, a canal from the Caspian Sea to the Gulf of Oman, so that Russian shipping can get to the Indian ocean and trade w/ whichever trading partners they have - India, South Africa, anybody. Iran can benefit from such a canal just like the Egyptians and Panamanians do w/ their canals, and it can help jumpstart the Iranian economy
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Maybe they should start talking to Reza Pahlavi and working out, say, a canal from the Caspian Sea to the Gulf of Oman, so that Russian shipping can get to the Indian ocean and trade w/ whichever trading partners they have - India, South Africa, anybody. Iran can benefit from such a canal just like the Egyptians and Panamanians do w/ their canals, and it can help jumpstart the Iranian economy
Now THAT would be an undertaking, looking at the topographic map of Iran [wikipedia.org]....
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Someone call Musk to start boring tunnels!
The US is watching (Score:5, Interesting)
You can bet this US administration is taking careful notes. Where Putin goes, Trump follows.
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For the same reason your boss doesn't obey you, whenever you say "Um, I'm going to need you to come in on Saturday."
North Korea 2.0 (Score:1)
With only China and America left as friends. (until Trump is overthrown at least)
That is bonkers (Score:2)
A motivated intelligence agent can get around any kind of block and disguise normal traffic to communicate. So all you are doing is cutting off your population from being able to use networks.
Re: (Score:2)
Dear slashdotters,
Do you think this guy is :
-A shill for a pseudo medicine who has found a weird place to sell his horse manure ?
-A troll who has a little fun playing a crank ?
-One of these multiple insane people on the internet ?
Drone attacks (Score:1)
Choose your adventure (Score:3)
1. There is a coup brewing in Moscow with increasingly public discontent.
https://kyivindependent.com/a-... [kyivindependent.com]
2. Internet blackout is to protect Mojtaba Khamenei who some think was flown to Moscow.
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/... [kyivpost.com]
More likely already dead.
3. Russia is preparing for mobilization and or seizure of private bank accounts and seeks to proactively quash dissent.
4. Ukrainian drones sporting Russian SIMS. Not likely given persistence of outages.
For 1-3 one would think wired Internet would be curtailed as well.
Personally I think in the context of pushing Max and banning popular competitors Russia is experimenting with boiling the frog with ultimate goal of disconnecting from global Internet entirely. There is already some propaganda to that end.
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5. if you are gig worker you are losing your income, you are more likely to sign for "Special Military Operation"
Open Technology Fund Concept & Response from 2 (Score:2)
From our rejected proposal to the Open Technology Fund in 2015 -- maybe the idea may be useful to someone:
====
The current NarraFirma software requires a server, even though most of the functionality runs on the client in JavaScript using Mithril and D3 with JSON for data exchange. We would like to help people share their real-life stories and anecdotes anywhere. To help with that, we would like to make an Android version of the NarraFirma software which runs as a distributed peer-to-peer app using Bluetooth
Recent history of the Open Technology Fund (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
====
The Open Technology Fund was started in 2012 by Libby Liu, then president of Radio Free Asia (RFA), as a pilot program within RFA to help better protect reporters and sources for the news organization with enhanced digital security technology.[9][2][5] Under U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the State Department adopted a policy of supporting global internet freedom initiatives.[10] At this time, RFA began looking into technologies that helped their audiences avoi