Mobile internet shut down in St Petersburg under pretext of drone threat

Mobile internet was largely shut down in Russia's St Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast on the evening of 10 July, with users' internet access restricted through so-called "whitelists" – another Kremlin censorship tool introduced under the guise of "protection" from Ukrainian drones.

Source: Russian media outlets Fontanka; The Moscow Times

Details: As of 21:50 Moscow time, the Downdetector service had recorded more than 600 complaints within a single hour. Over the course of the day, the total number of user reports exceeded 4,500.

Russian users reported that most websites and messaging apps had been blocked. The internet was operating under a strict censorship regime, with access limited to a restricted list of resources pre-approved by the Russian authorities.

According to reports from Fontanka readers, the toughest restrictions were in the city's Tsentralny, Vasileostrovsky and Vyborgsky districts. Earlier, mobile operator MTS had warned subscribers about service disruptions, citing "security reasons".

Leningrad Oblast Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko quickly justified the shutdown by referring to the threat of drone attacks.

The Russian authorities have repeatedly cited the need to "protect against Ukrainian drones" to justify internet censorship. Russian leader Vladimir Putin previously stated that shutting down mobile internet in Russia's regions is supposedly necessary to counter drone attacks.

However, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) argue that the Kremlin is deliberately using Ukrainian drone strikes on military facilities inside Russia as convenient cover for building a digital gulag.

Background:

• Putin instructed the Federal Security Service (FSB) to organise internet access in Russia through a "whitelist" system, effectively turning the country's internet into a closed, isolated network similar to that of North Korea.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Kremlin is restricting access to information in advance to prevent large-scale unrest and protests in the event of a major mobilisation.
• Zelenskyy said residents of Russia's largest cities, including Moscow and St Petersburg, would be among the first to face compulsory conscription to build reserves for future offensive operations.
• According to Ukrainian journalists and military analysts, the Kremlin plans to mobilise hundreds of thousands more people. They argue that a full-scale digital blackout would make it harder for Russians to coordinate protests and would prevent them from buying tickets or checking queues at border crossings if a new mobilisation were announced in the autumn.

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