There have been problems with the internet in Russia for weeks. Now Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin is arguing against “terrorism”. But his officials should have explained the shutdown better.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has commented on the Internet shutdown in Russia for the first time – almost eight weeks after the start of the large-scale blocking of mobile Internet in Moscow.
Putin justified the increasing Internet blockades by saying he wanted to prevent “terrorism.” There are problems and disruptions to the Internet in major cities, he said at a consultation with the government on Thursday. Operational measures to prevent terrorist attacks are related to this. “People’s safety will always be a priority.”
So far, the Kremlin has not given a specific reason for the shutdown; Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had previously argued for security measures.
Putin criticized the Russian bureaucracy’s implementation of the ban. The population needs to be informed afterwards, he said. “Law enforcement agencies must coordinate with civil authorities, act creatively and take into account the interests of citizens,” he said at the government meeting. Vital services such as the state service portal “Gosuslugi”, payment systems, emergency numbers and making appointments with doctors must also function in times of restrictions.
The political scientist Tatjana Stanovaya assessed the Kremlin chief’s statement as typical of him. “You see the problem not in the event itself, but in how it is explained to people,” she wrote on Telegram. Putin often attributes social discontent to the fact that his officials communicated things poorly.
The increasingly massive internet blockages have recently caused criticism even in circles loyal to the government. Moscow is massively expanding censorship on the Internet. Numerous websites, services and messengers such as WhatsApp and Telegram are blocked and can only be accessed via a VPN service that conceals the location. But Russia is also increasingly taking action against VPN services. The mobile Internet is increasingly being switched off regionally, including in the capital. In certain areas that house defense industry plants, internet and sometimes telephone connections have been dead for months.
In the past, authorities had justified this with security measures, for example when Ukrainian drones were approaching. In an interview with the “Presse”, Russia observer Nikolay Mitrokhin, however, expressed the thesis that Putin fears that his regime will be overthrown by foreign secret services. Due to fears of an Iran scenario, the Kremlin boss had the Internet paralyzed.
Putin ordered the war of aggression against Ukraine more than four years ago. The internet blocks apparently do not change anything about Kiev’s increasingly successful counterattacks on the Russian oil industry. (APA/dpa/red.)
