Russian authorities are preparing to flick the off switch on large parts of the country’s mobile internet just as they stage lavish Victory Day celebrations, turning a holiday about national triumph into a live test of how far the state can darken the digital public square.
Independent outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe calculates that “at least 21 regions in Russia” will “cut off communication ahead of May 9” as parades and Immortal Regiment marches get underway from May 5–9. The shutdowns cover not only front‑line regions but also the political and economic heartlands of Moscow and St. Petersburg, where restrictions began days before the main celebrations.
In Moscow, customers of multiple mobile operators have received text alerts warning that connections will not be reliable. One report notes that operators “warned Moscow residents about mobile internet and SMS shutdowns before May 9,” advising people to rely on Wi‑Fi instead. A separate Meduza story says mobile internet and SMS in the capital “will be restricted from May 5 to 9”, based on carrier notifications and leaks from telecom sources.
In St. Petersburg, major carriers MegaFon and Yota told subscribers they should expect “difficulties” with mobile internet service during preparations for and the holding of mass events, again recommending Wi‑Fi as a workaround. Banks such as Sberbank have also alerted clients to possible disruptions to internet and SMS services in the same period.
From the authorities’ perspective, the Victory Day shutdowns are an exceptional but lawful security measure, justified by the twin threats of terrorism and Ukrainian drone attacks.
Novaya Gazeta Europe notes that officials “explain the measures by security concerns and expect public ‘understanding’” as they roll out restrictions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities. The Kremlin has insisted that prior communications disruptions were carried out “in strict accordance with current legislation” and were connected to ensuring security.
The Digital Development Ministry plays a central operational role. On May 5, after a morning of widespread outages in Moscow and St. Petersburg, the ministry announced that “temporary blocks on mobile internet” in the capital had been lifted and described them as having been imposed “for security reasons.” During the blackout, the same ministry had told state media TASS that it was coordinating with security and law‑enforcement agencies to open a limited “white list” of websites that would remain accessible while most of the mobile internet was offline.
There is also an evolving technical narrative. In one Meduza feature, MTS attributed the May 5 outage to a “force majeure event — ‘external radio‑frequency interference’”, while Sberbank pointed to unspecified “current connectivity conditions.” These explanations dovetail with official claims that mobile networks must sometimes be throttled or cut entirely to hamper enemy drones or to mitigate terror risks.
Local authorities and state‑aligned media in St. Petersburg have even tried to decouple some restrictions from the symbolic date itself. One outlet, Fontanka, argued that mobile problems in the city were “not connected to Victory Day preparations but rather to an overnight attack by Ukrainian drones.”
Taken together, the official line frames the shutdowns as temporary, targeted and narrowly tailored defensive actions—tools that, while disruptive, are portrayed as necessary in wartime.
Independent Russian and exile media, by contrast, describe a far broader and more troubling pattern: the normalization of mass connectivity blackouts as a core instrument of domestic control.
Novaya Gazeta Europe reports that “internet and communication restrictions are back in Russia before May 9” and stresses that this is a repeat of measures seen during earlier holidays and crises. Its coverage maps specific services that have become unreliable or unusable in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and beyond, from mobile data to banking apps, taxis, and delivery platforms.
Meduza chronicles how, in practice, the security‑first rhetoric translates into sweeping disruptions. On May 5, “mobile internet went dark across Moscow and St. Petersburg” as authorities prepared for Victory Day events, hitting users of all four major carriers — Beeline, MegaFon, MTS, and T2 — and even breaking through previously protected whitelisted sites. The outage, they write, was so comprehensive that even the “white list” — the special set of sites meant to stay online during shutdowns — went down for hours.
In a separate news report, Meduza underscores that this is no one‑off. It recalls that Moscow residents “first encountered large‑scale internet restrictions a year ago, ahead of the 80th anniversary celebrations of Victory Day,” when mobile data virtually stopped working for days across multiple districts. Similar restrictions returned in March 2026, alongside intensified blocking of Telegram and the roll‑out of the capital’s “white list” system — a set of websites accessible during mobile internet shutdowns.”
Novaya Gazeta Europe goes further, arguing that Russia “has been living with partial shutdowns for a year”, with the Kremlin “first trying mass disconnections before the 80th anniversary of Victory Day.” According to the outlet, authorities usually justify these moves as “‘fighting drones’ or ‘counter‑terrorism operations,’” but the scale of the latest measures means that “many Russians may face a complete shutdown of the internet and communication” around May 9.
This perspective casts the 2026 restrictions not as narrowly focused security steps but as the consolidation of a new, semi‑permanent infrastructure for switching Russia’s networks on and off at will.
Across both official and opposition accounts, there is broad agreement on one point: the shutdowns significantly disrupt daily life, especially in the country’s largest cities.
Meduza details how the May 5 blackout in Moscow and St. Petersburg rippled through mundane but critical services. Ordering a taxi became “a struggle,” with Yandex warning that “not all” drivers would be able to accept ride requests and urging users to connect via home internet or phone. Drivers hunted for public Wi‑Fi, clustering at Vkusno — i tochka fast‑food outlets that offered open access.
Parking payments stalled as well. Moscow’s Department of Transportation recommended that residents use the city app or pay by text message, but with mobile internet down and SMS constrained, some people simply canceled activities, including sports classes, because they had “no way to park.”
Banks and businesses were hit too. Some ATMs in Moscow stopped working, according to state news agency RIA Novosti, leaving business owners unable to process payments and forcing them to visit branches in person. Cultural institutions from the Pushkin Museum to the Moscow Art Theatre warned visitors to save or print e‑tickets in advance, anticipating that on‑site verification would be impossible without a reliable connection.
Novaya Gazeta Europe notes similar knock‑on effects, with “Sber and Yandex Go services” among those reporting problems and online banking, taxi orders, and deliveries all affected by the May 5–9 restrictions. For many residents, the shutdowns mean reverting to cash, landlines, and paper confirmations — a sudden rewind of Russia’s highly digitized urban life.
If the Kremlin sees the shutdowns as a security tool and opposition media view them as a mechanism of control, ordinary Russians are largely being coached to adapt rather than resist.
Novaya Gazeta Europe has published a practical guide titled “How to Prepare for Internet Shutdowns,” reflecting a grim new normal in which the possibility of disconnection is an everyday planning factor. The article notes that “massive shutdowns are being prepared in Moscow and over twenty Russian regions by May 9th” and urges people to prepare for a scenario in which “standard digital services may become unavailable.”
Among the advice: withdraw cash in advance, download offline maps and important documents, arrange alternative meeting points with friends and family, and keep paper copies of key contacts. In other words, citizens are encouraged to build personal resilience around blackouts that are explicitly planned and implemented by their own state.
Telecom operators’ messages echo this adaptation‑first logic. Beeline’s alert to Moscow subscribers warns that to “ensure security measures in Moscow, temporary restrictions on mobile internet and SMS may occur” between May 5 and 9 and tells customers to switch to Wi‑Fi and VoLTE where possible.
The clash of narratives over the Victory Day shutdowns boils down to a larger question: are these strictly time‑bound emergency measures, or are they normalizing a new level of state power over Russia’s digital infrastructure?
On paper, the Kremlin’s position emphasizes temporariness, legality, and external threats. The Digital Development Ministry announces when “temporary restrictions” start and end, and security agencies are cited as the driving force.
Yet opposition and independent outlets point to the frequency, geographic spread, and technical sophistication of the shutdowns — from multi‑day blackouts to whitelists that selectively keep approved sites alive — as evidence that Russia is settling into a semi‑managed internet regime. “Internet and communication restrictions are back in Russia before May 9,” one Novaya headline puts it bluntly.
For now, most Russians are being asked not to choose sides in this debate but simply to cope: print tickets, carry cash, download maps. Whether the public comes to see these Victory Day blackouts as a necessary wartime inconvenience or as an unacceptable encroachment on everyday freedoms may determine how far — and how often — the government feels able to dim the country’s digital lights in the years ahead.
