Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law obliging telecom operators to stop providing services at the request of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian service of Radio Liberty reported.
The document was published on the official Russian legal information portal. The amendments will come into force 10 days after the signing by the head of state.
The new law obliges operators to suspend the provision of services upon receipt of a corresponding request from the FSB in cases “established by regulatory legal acts of the President of the Russian Federation.”
At the same time, it is stipulated that the operator will not be held liable for failure to fulfil obligations under the contract, if it is related to the fulfilment of the requirements of the special services.
Initially, the draft law stated that the FSB could send “requests” to block communications “in order to protect citizens and the state from security threats”, but by the second reading “request” was replaced by “requirements”, and the part about protecting the public from “security threats” was removed.
The bill on the FSB’s right to restrict communications was introduced to the State Duma in November 2025. State news agencies, citing sources, wrote that the initiative aims to free operators from responsibility for disabling communications due to drone attacks.
According to the results of 2025, Russia has become the world leader in the number of mobile internet outages. According to Top10VPN calculations, the shutdowns totalled 37,166 hours and affected almost the entire population of the country – 146 million people. On average, restrictions are now imposed in 63 regions in Russia every day, The Moscow Times writes, citing data from the “on line” project.