Russia experiences a massive internet outage

A massive outage has occurred in the Russian Internet and leading telecommunications operators. Internet users are complaining that many sites are not opening, including the service that monitors outages.

Russian users have complained about a large-scale Internet outage. Websites and applications of stores and banks are not loading, according to Downdetector data. There are also problems with access to Telegram, TikTok, Google, YouTube, Steam and Twitch. This was reported by Russian media on Tuesday, January 14.

In addition, subscribers report failures at Russian mobile operators. The Internet does not work at Beeline, Megafon and T2. The monitoring service Sboy.rf also crashed, but after some time it resumed functioning. Users experienced the most difficulties with access to popular resources.

Roskomnadzor stated that they do not know the reason for the Runet failure.

Rostelecom stressed that problems with access to Internet resources in Russia are not related to their networks. Beeline made a similar statement, noting that the failures "occur for reasons beyond the company's control." T2 made the same statement. MTS representatives declined to comment.

Roskomnadzor later reported that there had been a “short-term connection interruption” and that the network had been “promptly restored by the services on duty.” However, the agency was unable to explain why the outage did not affect services such as VKontakte, a social network owned by the VK holding company headed by the son of the first deputy head of the Russian presidential administration, Vladimir Kiriyenko.

This is the second outage in the Runet in the last 10 days. The previous one occurred on January 6.