Argo Ideon: Is Russia returning to the era of rotary dial landline phones?
Russian internet, in its previously familiar form, is destined to fade away, writes Argo Ideon.
An American spacecraft is sending ultra-sharp images of the Moon back home from a distance of 400,000 kilometers — including a jar of chocolate hazelnut spread floating in zero gravity. Meanwhile, residents of Moscow are struggling to access online shops on their phones, card payments were recently malfunctioning and communication with family members is intermittent. If Netflix isn't working, all that's left to watch is "nyet-flix."
The Russian authorities' ongoing efforts to restrict internet services represent a far deeper shift than initially apparent. While everyday inconvenience is one issue, for many Russians, this tightening of online freedoms serves as a blaring alarm that something is fundamentally wrong in the country.
Until recently, ordinary citizens could, if they chose, turn a blind eye to the war in Ukraine and pretend it didn't concern them. Many — especially the younger generation — escaped this unpleasant reality by retreating into their own worlds within the corners of the global web.
Tears and frustration
When the internet stops working, the result is a painful awakening. Social media is already flooded with clips of Russian users venting with heavy profanity; familiar web links are broken, tiktoks won't load and the resulting reactions range from uncontrollable crying to bitter complaints. These internet restrictions also hit the economy directly. For instance, small businesses who spent years building social media marketing channels now find them practically useless, taking a large share of their revenue down with them.
Dissatisfaction is emerging even among segments of Russian society considered fully loyal to the Kremlin and its great-power ambitions. When card payments and ATMs suddenly stopped working across Russia on the morning of April 3, State Duma Deputy Mikhail Delyagin shared a story on his Telegram channel about a Moscow merchant: "People can't buy anything. [...] We managed to persuade about 10 percent to pay in cash. More would have agreed, but they didn't have cash on them. We sent people to ATMs, but they couldn't withdraw money there either."
A day later, Delyagin added: "No, this is not an enemy air raid, an attack by external actors or malicious foreign hackers. This is our own Roskomnadzor [...]."
Towards an intranet
Across Runet (the Russian-language internet), sharp-witted discussions are flourishing regarding what the state and its internet enforcement apparatus, Roskomnadzor, might ban next. Speculation includes blocking payments for foreign internet services, issuing fines for installing banned applications, forbidding data storage on foreign cloud services or enacting even harsher measures.
Russia is rapidly moving toward a reality where access to the global internet becomes a privilege reserved for a select few. Ordinary citizens may have to settle for a "whitelist" of approved services accessible only through a state-controlled messaging monopoly — effectively an intranet rather than the internet. For now, users can still partially bypass these restrictions using VPN services. While their use is not yet explicitly banned, dark clouds are gathering.
Recently, the Russian business news portal rbc.ru had to publish a denial from the Interior Ministry regarding rumors that police would begin checking citizens' phones for alternative messaging apps and VPNs. However, advertising VPN services has been banned by law since last year, with strict fines already in place.
As of April 1 of this year, the Telegram messaging app was supposed to be fully blocked in Russia; yet in reality, many well-known Russian bloggers continue to post there. While some are abroad, others likely use VPNs or have found alternative workarounds.
Soviet citizens were historically highly resourceful in everyday matters and the same applies in today's Russia. If you can't contact relatives via WhatsApp or Telegram, you improvise — communicating through product comment sections in online stores, open rows in Google spreadsheets or even via pet feeder monitoring apps. While these might just be curiosities or memes for now, a simpler workaround for the masses is needed.
In any case, for anyone traveling to Russia these days, it might be useful to recall what a landline phone is and how a rotary dial used to work. Soon, there may be not much else to wish for anyway.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski
