Russian users report disruptions on messaging apps, local official links outages to ‘preventative work’ by federal censor

Russian users reported service outages on the messaging apps Telegram, WhatsApp, and Viber early Wednesday, according to data from Sboi.rf, the Russian equivalent of Downdetector.

The majority of complaints originated from Russia’s Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk regions. There were also reports from users in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Primorsky region, Yakutia, and many other Russian regions. Locals noted that the apps were only accessible with a VPN.

The day before, users in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, and Rostov-on-Don reported problems with YouTube.

Yakutia’s Deputy Digital Development Minister Andrey Suslov attributed the messenger outages to a technical glitch caused by “preventative work” being carried out by Russia's federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor.