Is Russia on the Brink of a ‘Great Firewall’? Citizens Turn to Walkie-Talkies and Road Maps

The demand for pagers, walkie-talkies, and portable radios has surged in Moscow as the city grapples with prolonged internet disruptions affecting its 13 million residents. This phenomenon has sparked speculation that the Kremlin might be testing a nationwide internet censorship system.

The internet blackout first came to light on March 5, initially impacting Moscow’s suburbs before extending into the bustling downtown areas. As connectivity dwindled, access to various foreign websites was restricted on mobile devices. Additionally, essential online services, including government portals, major banking platforms, and popular taxi apps, were rendered inaccessible.

According to estimates by the Russian media outlet Kommersant, the five-day internet outage inflicted financial losses ranging from $54 million to $89 million on businesses in the city.

Similar disruptions were later reported in Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest metropolis, further fueling concerns about the potential scope of these internet restrictions.

Shutdowns were also later reported in Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city.

Russian authorities claimed the restrictions — including similar internet shutdowns in the past — were part of measures to protect against Ukrainian drone attacks.

Last Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the shutdowns were carried out in “strict conformity with the law” and would continue “as long as additional measures to ensure security of our citizens are necessary”.

The recent shutdown was just the latest episode of intermittent internet outages that have occurred across the country since the Kremlin launched its war against Ukraine in 2022.

The have been reports the mobile internet blackout has come as Russia tests a so-called “whitelist” system, which would permit access to government-approved websites, apps and services. Moscow officials have reportedly said previously it would include “all resources needed for life”.

But many observers expect such a system could cost Russians access to the global internet.

How the blackout affected Russian residents

The internet outage in Moscow last week mainly targeted mobile users, as businesses and residential homes with broadband access haven’t been affected.

However, the city’s hospitality businesses could only accept payments in cash, as they rely on mobile internet for card and digital payments. ATMs and parking meters that rely on mobile internet also stopped working.

Those who wanted to book a ride via taxi apps found themselves forced to go back to the once-common method of calling taxi hotlines.

However, even some of those callers may have faced troubles, with some residents reporting that cellphone coverage for making calls disappeared during the week-long disruption.

Mobile internet signal at the Kremlin’s lower house building, which was just a few hundred metres away from Red Square in central Moscow, was also reportedly lost.

Local media reported that retailers recorded a quick surge in demand for pagers, portable radios, stationary phones, media players and road maps, as the shutdowns gripped the capital.

Online retailer Wildberries recorded a 27 per cent rise in sales of walkie-talkies in early March compared to February, while sales of pagers grew 73 per cent, according to a review of Russian newspapers by the BBC.

By Friday, Russian websites and some mobile apps were back online in central Moscow, but foreign websites remained blocked.

Russia’s post-2022 history of internet blackouts

After launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia banned Instagram and Facebook, labelling the Meta platforms “extremist”. X (formerly known as Twitter) and YouTube have also been blocked, while online streaming services such as Netflix and financial platforms like Apple Pay have withdrawn their businesses from Russia.

Reporters Without Borders says, since this time, “almost all independent media have been banned, blocked and/or declared ‘foreign agents’ or ‘undesirable organisations.”

Last year, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov argued that wartime censorship was justified, saying it would “be wrong to turn a blind eye to the media that are deliberately engaged in discrediting Russia”.

It’s also believed Russia could be actively seeking to disconnect itself from the World Wide Web.

In 2019, the Kremlin said it had completed a test that cut Russia off from the global internet, although it did not release many details, according to a BBC report.

And since 2022, there have been other reports of parts of Russia being cut off from the internet.

Is Russia trying to build its own Great Firewall?

Mohiuddin Ahmed, associate professor in cybersecurity at Adelaide University, has been following the frequent internet disruptions in Russia. He said the Kremlin might want to follow countries such as Iran and China to build an internet censorship system that restricts its people’s access to the outside world.

He believed the disruptions were the result of Russian authorities testing the system.

According to Ahmed, it’s possible that Russia has been actively instructing telecommunication providers to block websites and services the Kremlin dislikes, while developing its own version of the Great Firewall — a surveillance system created by China to monitor and block access to foreign websites.

It’s also possible that Russia is sharing its techniques with other nations.

During widespread internet shutdowns during protests in Iran earlier this year, some international security experts noted that previous workarounds — using satellite internet systems like Starlink — were unavailable.

“Similar jammers have been deployed by Russia in Ukraine, indicating there may be information and system sharing between Moscow and Tehran,” Nayana Prakash wrote in an article for the independent policy institute Chatham House.

While Ahmed pointed out that details remain unknown about any censorship strategy Russia was pursuing, he said there would always be ways for people to bypass internet restrictions.

“I would say that there must be some loopholes which are exploited by some technically smart people, so they can bypass the system,” he said.

However, the United Kingdom’s Financial Times newspaper has reported that the blackouts cannot be bypassed using conventional virtual private network (VPN) technology.

In recent weeks, the Kremlin has moved to block Telegram and WhatsApp, while promoting the state-backed ‘super-app’ Max, which has drawn comparisons with China’s WeChat.

As wars and conflicts continue across the world, Ahmed said internet blackouts could become a “successful” strategy for governments to control domestic political unrest.

“Internet blackouts are put in place so that everyday people can’t know what’s going on in the rest of the world.”

— With additional reporting by the Reuters news agency.

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