What happens to Google services in Russia

Brief instruction on how to prepare for possible locks

In September, Russian media reported on problems with the registration of Google accounts in Russia. The service did not allow the Russian phone number to confirm and did not send SMS for verification.

After some time, the problem was solved by itself, but the concern for the possible disconnection of the American service did not disappear: users rightly fear that Google can leave the country because of the latest American sanctions that limited the supply of IT services to companies in Russia. We figure out what happened to Google's accounts in September and whether they can suddenly stop working again.

Note of the editorial office
This material was first published in the framework of the “Access point” newsletter, specially prepared for VPNOVAA users. In it, the authors share the project news and give advice on how to safely behave on the Internet to avoid the attention of Russian state bodies and other ill -wishers. You can support the work of journalistsby leaving a donation for any amount.

What do the Russian authorities and Google say?

On September 26, the Ministry of Digital Development of Russia stated that Google limits the creation of new accounts, and advised users to make a backup copy of the profile data. The ministry also noted that the authorization of accounts through SMS works without problems, but "there is no certainty that this opportunity will remain." As a solution to the problem, the department proposed switching to “domestic services”.

Why the mincifres made a statement only 17 days after the failure, it is unclear. In general, the Russian authorities diligently superior the situation: for example, on September 17, the deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Inform Policy Anton Gorylykin announced that in Russia failures may begin with all phones based on the Android operating system, owned by Google. The deputy accused the company itself in everything, which allegedly does not update servers within the country due to sanctions. It is the problem with the servers that explain the slowdown of YouTube since August this year.

A day after the statement of the Google Minzifra, it gave an official comment.

“We know that some users in Russia have problems using Google accounts, and we are working to solve these problems. We still strive to save our free services available in Russia ",

- told the company representatives.

The keyword is free. Two Google commercial services in Russia no longer work: this is a program for marketers BigQuery and Adsense advertising accounts for banner advertising on the sites and on YouTube. But everything else, including the search, Gmail, Chrome, Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets, worked and, as follows from the last statement of the company, will work uninterruptedly.

Should I worry about the Russian Google account?

If you already have it, do not worry - problems with old accounts in Russia have not yet been recorded. Even those malfunctions that occurred in September were associated exclusively with the verification of new accounts through the Russian phone number.

But if you need to create a new account, you should not worry too much. In fact, the phone number is not needed for registration - Google himself separately indicates that this condition is optional. Of the obligatory ones - you only need to come up with nicknames, password and tell the reason for creating an account (for personal use, for a child or for the organization).

However, there really is a chance that Google will not allow you to register without a phone number. It is incomprehensible to what this is connected with periodic problems was indicated by , for example, an analyst at FinTech Lab Sergey Willovov. If this happened, indicate your Russian number - now there are no failures with verification through SMS. If the number is not suitable, you can buy a virtual SIM card-they are sold on different trading platforms (we advise you to use this one , here you can pay in rubles).

How to prepare for possible restrictions?

Although Google continues to support its free services available to users from Russia, nothing prevents the Kremlin from limiting them independently, justifying this with problems with servers, as it was with YouTube.

We emphasize that the VPNOVAA team considers the Gmail or Google Docs lock scenario in Russia is not realistic. But in case of the worst development of events, it is better to have a spare plan. Think about what Google services you use most often and how they can be replaced. For example, its search engine can easily be replaced with Bing by Microsoft or anonymous Duckduckgo and Brave . And online documents-on Onenote or Libreoffice .

With the Gmail postal service, it’s getting harder: finding an alternative to him is not so simple. Here are a few criteria that should be taken into account when finding a new email.

• Consider only foreign services. It is unsafe to use the Yandex, Mail.ru or Rambler in Russia: these companies are working with Russian security forces and freely provide them with access to correspondence.

• Assess the security and stability of the application. This will help protect against hacking. As a rule, the key assistant is this - double authentication - through the reserve address of the mail or the answer to the secret question. With double authentication, attackers will not be able to enter your account, even if they know the password.

• Look for a service where registration by number is not required. Remember and maintain maximum privacy in order not to depend on the phone number in case of failures or disconnecting Russian numbers for Western sites.

What postal services are suitable for these criteria?

Fortunately, many. In 2024, almost every foreign postal service has double authentication and registration not by phone number. We have chosen three reliable options.

• Protonmail is the main anonymous mail service. All messages are protected by through encryption, and even Proton does not have access to them. There is no advertising in the mail itself, and you can put a carlet on letters so that after time they disappear from recipients.

• Outlook - competitor Gmail from Microsoft. Often used by large companies for corporate mailings. Outlook has a built -in calendar where you can enter meetings, and integration with Word and PowerPoint.

• TUTA is another anonymous postal service with through encryption. Unlike Protonmail, there is integration with the calendar. The authors say that their mail is even safer than that of Proton.