The August shutdowns in Russia broke the record again. According to the «In Touch» project, last month the regions of Russia faced no less than 2129 internet shutdowns. In July, 2099 shutdowns were recorded.
In May, the restrictions were still «trial» — only 69 internet shutdowns. In June, the situation worsened: — 662 restrictions. Then the shutdowns became constant and widespread.
According to the calculations of the «Internet Protection Society» (IPS), the minimum amount of losses from internet shutdowns in Russia in August amounted to 26.5 billion rubles.
Mostly, partial internet shutdowns occur in Russia: this is when the internet works in some parts of the city, and in others — it does not. But in some cases, there are also complete internet shutdowns: when mobile internet is completely turned off in a locality: for example, in Volgograd, Voronezh, Krasnodar, and the town of Bui in the Kostroma region.
In August 2025, the authorities explained the mass mobile internet shutdowns as «ensuring security», the threat of drones, and «heightened readiness mode». However, such grounds are not explicitly provided for by federal law: the law only allows restrictions in the event of a state of emergency, martial law, an official state of emergency, or based on individual FSB orders — but none of these were publicly announced. Moreover, the internet was also shut down in regions where there was no threat of drone attacks at the time.