On Wednesday (August 21) at around 2 p.m. Moscow time, Russian users of WhatsApp and Telegram messengers began to complain about problems using the applications, the news agency reported. According to information from Internet users, they had problems sending messages and loading chats. In the case of WhatsApp, the desktop version of the application was unavailable.
Russia. Major outage of communicators. Services say DDoS attack
Information about the outage also began to flow in from users in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. According to an independent Russian portal, Internet users also reported smaller-scale problems with the Yandex search engine and the Wikipedia online encyclopedia. There were also minor difficulties in using applications such as Skype, Steam, and Discord.
The reports of the outage were confirmed by Roskomnadzor, the agency responsible for monitoring mass media. The Russian service said that it was caused by a DDOS attack on Russian telecommunications operators. It also reported that at around 3 p.m. local time the problems had been resolved and services were now operating without disruption.
Russian activist: Kremlin may be planning to block instant messaging apps
It is worth noting that this is the second Telegram outage in Russia in a short period of time. The previous one occurred on Monday (August 19). Activist Mikhail Klimarev, quoted by the Meduza portal, speculated at the time that this could indicate an intention to block the popular messenger by the Russian authorities. He also shared similar speculations in the case of Wednesday’s outage.
On Tuesday (August 20), the channel reported based on unofficial information that Telegram founder Pavel Durov and Vladimir Putin were to meet in Baku, Azerbaijan, earlier this week. However, the Russian president rejected the proposal from his officials at the last minute. The reason for the refusal and the topics that were to be discussed during the meeting are not known.
Source: Gazeta
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