Russia intensifies ban on opponents and critics of war against Ukraine – British intelligence

The Russian government has imposed additional limitations on the use of digital telecommunications within the country to restrict citizens' access to accurate information.

The Ministry of Defense of Great Britain reported that on X (Twitter).

Specifically, Russian authorities started slowing down the traffic on WhatsApp's encrypted messaging app.

The public explanation is to limit the ability of extremist groups to communicate. As the Russian government defines it, this likely also includes restricting the ability of opposition activists and those opposed to the war in Ukraine to organize and communicate.

In addition, on July 12, Russian independent media reported that the YouTube outage was caused by the Russian government's deliberate traffic slowdown.

It is reported that the Kremlin will most likely block YouTube entirely in September 2024.

YouTube is relatively popular in Russia and has been used by opposition activists, most notably the late Oleksii Navalny, to disseminate criticism of the Russian government.

According to British intelligence, these measures, like the recent ban on independent media and restrictions on other means of secure communication, accelerate a long-standing trend of increased state control over access to media and information in Russia.

"These restrictions on access to social media platforms are likely designed to ensure that the Russian population can only access media that conforms to government-controlled ideology. By restricting safer means of private communication, government surveillance of potential dissenters will ease and create a climate of fear among those who can criticize the regime," the British Ministry of Defense emphasizes.

For reference: 

According to the Levada Center, the absolute majority of Russian residents (75%) support the war with Ukraine. Most respondents (71%) would support Putin's decision if "this week" he decided to end the war with Ukraine. However, if Putin decided to end the war on the condition of returning the captured territories, then in this case, 30% of Russians would support his decision.

It was previously reported that the president of the aggressor country, Vladimir Putin, maintains solid domestic support for his regime and its war in Ukraine even though the Russian Federation has poor economic conditions and living standards. That is, 63% of Russians continue to support the war in Ukraine.

Moreover, the Russian Federation restricted 81 European mass media broadcasting on its territory.