Following Moscow, St. Petersburg experienced mobile internet outages. The blockages began after 6 a.m. on March 9, according to Downdetector data.
Nearly 2,500 complaints were received. Residents report that their messaging apps, websites, and banking apps are down. They can only access “whitelisted” services.
The outages coincided with Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko’s announcement about the dangers of drones and a possible “reduction in mobile internet speed.” More than 500 residents of the region complained of outages. After 10:00 a.m., Drozdenko reported the threat had been removed and one drone had been shot down. St. Petersburg authorities themselves made no announcements about mobile internet restrictions or incoming aircraft.
Moscow has been without mobile internet for five days now. The service is still recording complaints. However, websites on the “whitelist,” including Gosuslugi, social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, Yandex services, marketplaces, and government agency resources, remain operational.
The day before, Beeline, MegaFon, and T2 announced that the outages were caused by “external restrictions” unrelated to them. Kommersant’s sources in the telecoms market reported that the operators had been ordered to restrict mobile internet service in certain areas of the capital.
On March 5-6, a complete network outage was tested in the city center . According to the IT publication “Kod Durova,” both mobile internet and phone calls were down—phones showed “emergency calls only” status. A similar situation was observed on Monday in St. Petersburg, where residents complained of a complete loss of service in the city center, on the Field of Mars.
Internet shutdowns in Russia have been ongoing since May 2025. Last year, the country became the world leader in the number of such shutdowns. According to Top10VPN, outages lasted 37,166 hours, affecting almost the entire population of 146 million people. On average, restrictions are imposed in 63 regions daily, according to data from the “On the Line” project.
(c)THE MOSCOW TIMES 2026