Perhaps the service failures were a test for total blocking of Internet resources in the case of possible protests. Such measures are not new to the Russian authorities and have been practiced for many years.
Recall the recent mass protests in the Republic of Bashkortostan earlier this year - telecom operators there completely shut down access to the network.
However, this could indicate future tightening of Internet censorship by the Russian authorities. In messengers, Russians have the opportunity to read independent publications, even if their sites have been blocked by Roskomnadzor.
Not only messengers have come under the attention of the Russian authorities.
Recently, the Russian analog of the largest Internet encyclopedia "Wikipedia" - "Ruwiki" - was launched. The site only duplicates articles from the original Wikipedia, but there are some significant differences.
For example, in the article about Ukrainian Mariupol they write that the city allegedly belongs to the Russian Federation and is part of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic. Not a word is written in the article about the hostilities that almost destroyed the city.
Earlier propagandists noted that only the absence of a Russian analog of "Wikipedia" stops the authorities from blocking the resource.
It seems that the trends towards total censorship of the Internet in the Russian Federation are only growing.
In this difficult case, the Russian authorities can rely on the experience of their allies - Iran, China and North Korea. For example, in Iran, the authorities have long blocked access to social networks and international news agencies, and local residents use VPNs to circumvent the restrictions.
In China, the situation with Internet censorship is even worse. The country has become world-famous for its "Great Firewall of China," which restricts access to many foreign websites and services, including Google, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).
In North Korea, only the pro-government elite have access to the world wide web, while the rest have access only to an internal network.
What path will Russia choose?
