Disruption of Runet

At the beginning of the year, Russia experienced «regional disconnection». Residents of Primorye, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Khabarovsk Krai, and the Moscow and Volgograd regions faced connectivity issues at the same time.

The longest outage occurred in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), where WhatsApp and Telegram were unavailable from January 23 to 27. It is speculated that the Yakutia authorities used this as a tactic to quell protests sparked by the murder of a local resident.

By January 30, websites with .RU and .РФ domains were no longer available to Internet users across the country. Experts explained that the problem was caused by “incorrect DNSSEC settings” on the DNS servers responsible for these domains. This was later confirmed by the Ministry of Digital Development.

The Net Freedoms Project suggested that these disruptions were a side effect of the government’s ongoing experiment to create a national domain name service.

The Baymak Case

In January, protests were held in the town of Baymak in Bashkortostan against the prosecution of environmental activist Fail Alsynov, who was accused of «inciting hatred» for a speech he made in the Bashkir language about problems in the region.
Some Telegram channels and websites that covered the protests were blocked.

The court eventually sentenced Alsynov to four years in a general-regime penal colony. On the eve of the hearing, WhatsApp was disrupted across the republic, and internet access was almost completely unavailable within several kilometers of the court — even VPNs failed to restore connection.

The «Yarovaya Law» Endangers Online Security

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued its first judgement on the «Telegram encryption keys» case.

In 2017, Russia’s Roskomnadzor (The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media) added Telegram to the Register of Information Dissemination Organizers (ORI) at the request of the FSB (Russia’s Federal Security Service). Under the «Yarovaya Law», platforms on this list are required to collect, store, and hand over all user data, including private messages, to the security services upon request.

Telegram refused to provide the FSB with its encryption keys, resulting in a fine of 800,000 rubles and later a nationwide ban. This led to the «Battle for Telegram» campaign, in which Russian internet users, supported by Roskomsvoboda lawyers, argued that the request violated confidentiality laws. After exhausting all legal remedies in Russia, they filed a collective complaint with the ECHR.

On February 13, the ECHR ruled that the «Yarovaya Law» posed a threat to the security of all internet users. The court stated that backdoors facilitate mass surveillance and that Russian legislation lacks adequate safeguards against abuse.

What Does the ECHR Ruling Mean?

Although Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe (CoE) on March 15, 2022, the ECHR continues to process cases submitted before that date. Technically, Russia is obliged to comply with these judgements.

Nevertheless, the decision remains significant:

• ECHR judgements shape international judicial practice.

• They provide the global community with an accurate picture of Russia’s internal affairs.

• It is not excluded that one day these judgements will be enforced by the Russian state. There is a precedent of a return to the Council of Europe, which could make the implementation of such decisions a reality in the future.

«This is a decisive victory in declaring the “Yarovaya Law” incompatible with the European Convention and international law. We’re satisfied that after five years justice has prevailed. Of course, any financial compensation would not have been paid by the Russian authorities anyway», — commented cyber lawyer Sarkis Darbinyan, who represented the complainants.