Ripples of dissent in society began surfacing earlier in 2026, when the Kremlin banned or restricted most messaging apps while preserving access only to a state-backed alternative,
The Guardian reports.
Mobile internet across central Moscow and other regions has been intermittently disrupted or shut down entirely, causing Russian businesses to complain of billions of roubles in losses.
Authorities have justified the unprecedented crackdown as a security measure against Ukrainian drone attacks and sabotage operations.
The shutdowns prompted dark humour among Moscow’s elite. “At the dinner table, everyone talks about the internet. We are now somewhere closer to North Korea,” one Kremlin insider said. China’s internet controls, once routinely mocked in Russia as a symbol of censorship, are now discussed with a degree of envy.
The internet shutdowns are being overseen by the powerful second service of the FSB, a feared department within the security services responsible for the poisoning of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
At the same time, figures within Russia’s political elite – including the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, and the first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko – have privately tried to steer Putin away from some of the harsher restrictions, but with no success, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
“As long as the war continues, Putin will favour the security services,” said another figure close to the Kremlin.
“The issue with the internet is a very sensitive one for Russian society. And it has sparked a huge wave of outrage,” said Ksenia Sobchak, a well-connected Russian journalist and daughter of Putin’s former political mentor, in a telephone interview.
