‘BBC Russian Service’ reportedly finds letter confirming that Moscow police ordered cell signal shutdown during August 3 protest

The BBC Russian Service has reportedly obtained a letter that indicates Moscow law enforcement officials ordered cellular Internet services to be shut down during last Saturday’s protest for free elections. The letter was allegedly sent to call center employees working for one of Russia’s “big three” cellular service providers (MTS, Beeline, and MegaFon), but the BBC did not specify which of the three operators had sent the letter in question.

According to the BBC, the letter informs the call center’s employees of a government-ordered signal outage: “Colleagues, a portion of our cellular towers in Moscow’s Presnensky, Basmanny, and central districts have been turned off on orders from law enforcement agencies,” it reads. The document also warns call center employees that their “company does not acknowledge” the shutdown and asked them to explain to any frustrated customers that “no difficulties in providing our services have been noted from the company’s side.”

Official MegaFon representatives told the BBC they did not receive any demands to turn off mobile Internet access during the protest, and MTS representatives told the agency that the company’s cellular towers were working as usual. VimpelCom, which owns Beeline, did not respond to requests for comment.

As Meduza reported yesterday, Russian law mandates both that cellular companies obey government orders demanding signal outages and that those companies refrain from telling the public about any such orders.