Internet outages likely during upcoming Russian elections, warns top official

The head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, has warned Russians that they can expect widespread internet outages during the country’s parliamentary elections in September, Russian news agency TASS reported on Monday.

Citing security measures as the reason for the potential restrictions, Pamfilova urged Russians “not to grumble” about any data restrictions imposed by the government.

“I don’t think we should be grumbling because to put it in perspective, you being unable to go online might mean saving somebody’s life,” Pamfilova said, adding that interruptions to data and communications would be “in the interests of ensuring security”.

This year’s elections are due to be held over three days on 18–20 September, and will see all 450 seats in the State Duma up for re-election, as well as some 23,000 other local and regional political offices.

In October, Russian business daily Vedomosti reported that the Kremlin had set Russia’s regional governments a minimum quota of 55% of votes for the State Duma to go to the ruling party United Russia.

Accessing the internet has become an increasingly fraught task for people in Russia in recent years, with a growing number of apps being banned, VPNs becoming harder to use, and the list of sites blocked by Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor growing weekly.

So far this year, unprecedented mobile internet blackouts, some of which have lasted for days, have left people feeling unsettled, especially in Moscow, which experienced the most interruption in services. In May, at least 21 Russian regions were forced to scale back celebrations marking Victory Day amid plans for mass internet outages over a four day period.