As the Kremlin throttles internet access, Russians find scrappy work-arounds

In Moscow, a highly digitized city humming with online services, a three-week internet shutdown this year created a sense of time warp back to the 1990s. People panic-bought radios and pagers, and unfolded paper maps. Public toilets stopped working, paralyzed without bank payments by mobile internet. Taxi and ride-sharing apps were unreachable. Messaging platforms went dead. The shutdown, which spanned most of March, ended as abruptly as it began, with little explanation beyond security concerns as Ukraine extends the reach of its attacks inside Russia. In public remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized that it was temporary and for safety. But in its length and extent, the shutdown offered a glimpse of what daily life could look like if the Kremlin’s apparent, long-running effort to sever Russians from the global internet were to reach a final tipping point, aided by a wave of restrictions that followed soon after.