TALLINN – When Russians look back at 2025, they might remember it as the year when the government took even tighter control of the internet.

Credit cards that won't buy a ticket on public transport. ATMs that don't connect to a network. Messaging apps that are down. Cellphones that don't receive texts or data after a trip abroad. Mothers of diabetic children even complain with alarm that they can't monitor their kids' blood glucose levels during outages.

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The cellphone internet shutdowns, ostensibly to thwart Ukrainian drone attacks , have hit dozens of Russian regions for months. Popular messaging apps also are restricted, with the government promoting a state-controlled app seen by critics as a possible surveillance tool.

Although broadband and Wi-Fi internet a

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