Russia Hit With Widespread Internet Outage Nationwide

Russia’s Digital Ministry announced on messenger platform Telegram that a “technical problem” has led to widespread internet outages across the country. 

“A technical problem has arisen affecting the .RU zone, associated with the global DNSSEC* infrastructure. Specialists from the Internet Technical Center and MSK-IX are working to eliminate it,” the ministry said. 

X users say dozens of Russian websites are down:

Report on Internet Connection Issues in Russia pic.twitter.com/94v1maxXhj

— Russian Market (@runews) January 30, 2024

Widespread internet disruption in Russia. Russia built its isolated internet (.ru) for years. Now, a massive outage shows shutting it down is all too easy pic.twitter.com/RLWqDMDWsH

— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) January 30, 2024

Bloomberg reported that “the most popular local search engine Yandex.ru” and websites of large banks, including Sberbank PJSC and VTB Group, were also affected by the outage. Outages were reported across Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tatarstan, and the Sverdlovsk and Novosibirsk regions.  

Russian Internet users have reported disruptions to their mobile service, as well as issues with accessing many popular websites. Russia’s Digital Development Ministry said the outage was “associated with the global DNSSEC infrastructure.” https://t.co/xXShlS4Txe

— Meduza in English (@meduza_en) January 30, 2024

The ministry continued: “The problem has now been resolved for subscribers of the National Domain Name System. Restoration work is underway. We will keep you updated on the situation.”