Putin Is Tightening His Grip On Russia's Internet With Dramatic New Tactic, UK Says
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) reported last week that the Kremlin has been rolling out extensive cellular (mobile) internet blackouts across its own country.
A staggering 654 outages occurred just in June – nearly 10 times the amount recorded the previous month.
'These outages impacted coverage for over half the country,' the MoD said.
'The Russian government has formally stated that the blackouts are intended to block Ukrainian uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) reliant on cellular signals, but independent reports suggest the goal is tighter control over online information.'
Fixed line or wired internet connections are rising as well, with a group of exile Russian journalists in The Medusa Project recording up to 20-21 day internet shutdowns in various regions across the whole nation.
ATMs and digital payments have been disrupted, and public safety alerts have supposedly taking place as a consequence.
The intelligence officials pointed out that at least one period of outages did align with a wave of drone strikes from Ukraine, when Russia claimed it had downed more than 200 Ukrainian weapons.
But, as the Medusa Project said earlier this month, 'the seemingly random nature of the shutdowns makes it difficult to identify consistent patterns or a clear logic behind the authorities' decisions.'
They added: 'Some regions that would logically be high-priority targets for Ukrainian strikes have experienced relatively few attacks, while others that fall outside all of these categories have been hit much more frequently.'
Difficulty accessing the internet is not the only way Russian lives have been impacted by the brutal war.
For the first time since the tradition began in 2017, Moscow called off the 'Day of the Russian Navy' parade meant to take place on Sunday.
Historically, other nations would also attend on the Russian national holiday to compare all of their warships.
British intelligence suggests this cancellation was due to 'force protection concerns'.
And, of course, this is all on top of the astounding number of casualties the Russian army has endured since invading Ukraine in February 2022.
As the MoD wrote: 'Even after enduring 1 million battlefield losses in Ukraine, its' clear that Russia has no plans to end the suffering of its illegal war. The Kremlin cares more about territorial conquest than peace in Europe.'
These MoD updates come as American efforts to negotiate a Russian peace deal with Ukraine continue to struggle.
However, US president Donald Trump is reportedly planning on raising the ongoing war with UK prime minister Keir Starmer during his current visit to Scotland.
Before he departed for his trip, Trump told US reporters he is looking at imposing further sanctions on Russia.
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