Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ The Russian government's Internet shutdown from 5th to 9th May appears to have been predictably badly implemented. It seems to have spilled out from Moscow across Russia and also affected SMS and phone calls, causing widespread disruption and public anger. ⬇️

2/ The restrictions were officially explained as security measures leading up to and during the Victory Day parades in Moscow and St Petersburg. Russian firms issued advisories to download maps, stock up on cash, and use Wi-Fi. In practice, far more got broken than anticipated.

3/ Russians interviewed by the independent Russian outlet 'We can explain' reported that the outages affected other cities, as well as knocking out Wi-Fi and mobile phone services. They expressed anger, deep dissatisfaction, and frustration at the situation:

4/ "The entire centre inside the Garden Ring is completely out of commission. Outside the Third Ring Road, there's mobile internet. We, and the vast majority of our friends and acquaintances, are dissatisfied. Everyone is very tired of the surrounding insanity,…

5/ …and many are hoping for this entire insane system to collapse. Not everyone can leave; many have children growing up, and many parents who can afford it are sending their children to study abroad—hoping they'll stick around and never return."

6/ Others found they couldn't pay for anything: "I wanted to pay for groceries at the store, but I couldn't because my card wasn't activated. I tried using the Ak Bars Bank app, but there were problems there too.

7/ "I don't even know what to do—it looks like I'm running out of money for the holidays."

Those outside Moscow were also affected, as were supposedly whitelisted online services:

8/ "The outages were announced only for Moscow, but in Tver, we were without internet just as badly. On May 4th and 5th, almost nothing worked, including Wi-Fi. It was impossible to pay for purchases using a QR code; the connection kept dropping.

9/ Everything was restored on May 6th, but on 7th May, even Sberbank Online wouldn't open again. It seems the operators simply couldn't limit the blockages to Moscow."

Probably because of a quirk of infrastructure design, mobile phone service got cut off too:

10/ "Moscow (downtown, Tverskaya Street) and Krasnogorsk. On May 4th, 5th, and 6th, almost nothing worked without a VPN. Even mobile phone service: the call would connect, but after 30 seconds, the call would be cut off. Everything worked with a VPN."

Source:
t.me/mozhemobyasnit…