MOSCOW (AP) — Many foreign websites were blocked Friday on mobile phones in central Moscow under restrictions that have gripped the Russian capital for more than a week, derailing the routine of millions of residents and slamming businesses that rely on cellphone internet.
Russian authorities have said the restrictions are part of security measures to fend off Ukrainian drone attacks, but many industry experts suspect they are part of preparations by the authorities to block Russians' access to the global web if the Kremlin decides to do so.
Click to Gallery
The sun is seen behind a Red Star atop of a Kremlin Tower during sunset in Moscow, Thursday, March 12, 2026, backdropped by a Stalin's style skyscraper. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
A man looks at his smartphone as a woman reads a book while on the subway in Moscow Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
The sun is seen behind a Red Star atop of a Kremlin Tower during sunset in Moscow, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
People enter an underpass during sunset in Moscow, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
People watch and take photos during sunset in Moscow, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
The intermittent shutdowns, which had previously been recorded in dozens of Russia’s regions for months, have prompted some Moscow residents to turn to long-forgotten gadgets like walkie talkies, pagers and media players.
The shutdowns are part of multipronged efforts by the authorities to rein in the internet. They have adopted restrictive laws and banned websites and platforms that don’t comply. Technology also has been perfected to monitor and manipulate online traffic.
After President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the government has blocked major social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Last year, Russia’s communications watchdog announced it was restricting popular messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram.
At the same time, authorities have actively promoted a “national” messenger app called MAX, which critics see as a surveillance tool.
The mobile internet shutdowns in Moscow, which were first reported on March 5 on some of the capital's outskirts, swept through the downtown area earlier this week. Many other regions have been hit with connectivity blackouts since May.
During the outages, a number of government-approved Russian websites and online services have been designated as being on “white lists” and have been available. But during this week's cellphone internet disruptions in Moscow, even white-listed government services, top banks and taxi apps stopped functioning.
Businesses with broadband access, and residents with broadband at home, have not been affected.
However, owners of Moscow cafes, restaurants and shops that rely on mobile internet have suffered massive losses as customers have been unable to pay for the services. The ATMs and parking meters that rely on cellphone internet stopped working.
Taxi apps have offered clients the option of calling a taxi by phone and paying cash.
During some moments, not only cellphone internet but cellphone coverage for making calls was halted completely.
Earlier this week, members of the Kremlin-controlled parliament reported that mobile internet was almost entirely missing in the lower house building located just a few hundred meters (yards) from Red Square.
On Friday, Russian websites and some mobile apps were available in central Moscow, but foreign websites were blocked in what some observers saw as part of dress rehearsals for cutting off access to the Web.
The business daily Kommersant published an estimate earlier in the week that Moscow businesses lost between 3 and 5 billion of rubles (about $38 million to $63 million) in five days of shutdowns. Other estimates ran significantly higher.
Media reports said that as shutdowns gripped Moscow, retailers recorded a quick surge in demands for pagers, portable radios, stationary phones and media players.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that latest cellphone internet shutdown in Moscow was in “strict conformity with the law” and would last “as long as additional measures to ensure security of our citizens are necessary.”
Recently approved legislation has obliged Russian internet providers to shut down mobile internet when the authorities declare it necessary for security reasons.
Asked why the shutdowns in Moscow were taking place now, Peskov responded that as Ukraine launches “increasingly sophisticated methods of attack, the more technologically advanced measures are needed to ensure public security.”
He said that the government will look at ways to compensate businesses for the losses resulting from the shutdowns, but offered no specifics.
The sun is seen behind a Red Star atop of a Kremlin Tower during sunset in Moscow, Thursday, March 12, 2026, backdropped by a Stalin's style skyscraper. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
A man looks at his smartphone as a woman reads a book while on the subway in Moscow Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
The sun is seen behind a Red Star atop of a Kremlin Tower during sunset in Moscow, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
People enter an underpass during sunset in Moscow, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
People watch and take photos during sunset in Moscow, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces carried out new defensive strikes on Wednesday on an Iran military facility after downing Iranian attack drones, according to U.S. officials.
The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said U.S. Central Command forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. forces also struck an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone, according to the officials.
The strikes came after President Donald Trump asserted Wednesday that Iran is “negotiating on fumes” and insisted that November's midterm elections won't make him rush into a deal to end the nearly three-month-old conflict that's spurred unease across the global economy.
Speaking at the start of a Cabinet meeting, Trump expressed confidence that a deal is near. Over the weekend, he even declared that his administration and Tehran had “largely negotiated” a settlement, though the talks are still in flux.
The president is looking for a settlement that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide him with a credible argument that Iran’s nuclear capability has been diminished enough to declare victory, winding down a conflict that's been politically unpopular for Republicans.
But as things stand, Trump also risks finding that closure to his war of choice comes with an unsatisfactory ending.
The emerging deal puts off many critical issues to be resolved later and has already exposed the Republican president to fierce criticism — even from some of his own supporters — that Iran's hardline leaders will emerge from the conflict battered but emboldened. It all comes to a head just as the midterm elections to determine control of Congress come into focus and as Republicans worry that rising costs and fuel prices are darkening the American electorate's mood.
But Trump on Wednesday dismissed the idea that the upcoming elections would shape his Iran strategy.
“They thought they were gonna outwait me. You know, 'We’ll outwait him. He’s got the midterms,'” Trump said. “I don’t care about the midterms.”
Trump acknowledged there's still work to do, but he spoke with a measure of certainty that the two sides would get there.
“They want very much to make a deal,” Trump said. “So far, they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be — either that or we’ll have to just finish the job.”
Talks were further complicated after U.S. forces carried out what the Pentagon called “defensive” strikes on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran on Monday. The U.S. said it acted with “restraint” in light of the weekslong ceasefire, while Iran decried the action as a sign of “bad faith and unreliability.” Wednesday's strikes are likely to cause more complications.
While Trump insists a deal is within reach, there appears to be daylight between the U.S. and Iran on several key issues. The president is also facing scrutiny from Republican allies, including Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ted Cruz of Texas, who have said the terms seem too favorable to Tehran.
They're balking at aspects of the deal that have emerged publicly that they say too closely resemble the nuclear agreement reached with Iran by Democratic President Barack Obama, which Trump scrapped during his first term.
Under the potential deal, Tehran would agree to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium — a key Trump demand — in return for sanctions relief. That's according to two regional officials and one senior Trump administration official, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.
One regional official, with direct knowledge of the negotiations, said how Iran would give up the uranium would be subject to further talks during a 60-day period. Some would likely be diluted, while the rest would be transferred to a third country, the official said.
Trump said that he “wouldn’t be comfortable” with either Russia or China taking Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The two countries have the closest relations with Tehran, and nuclear analysts have said they could be a potential acceptable third party to the Iranian Republic to take possession of the enriched uranium as part of a potential deal.
Iran has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran has not publicly committed to giving up its uranium.
Another key issue unresolved is whether the ceasefire will also cover Israel’s operations against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon. Iran has insisted that Lebanon must be covered by any ceasefire agreement negotiated with the United States.
The administration appears to leave some wiggle room on the Lebanon question. The emerging memorandum of understanding calls for a ceasefire between the U.S. and its allies against Iran and its proxies, such as Hezbollah, but also underscores Israel's right to act against imminent threats and in self-defense.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday announced that the Israeli military is “deepening its operation” in Lebanon. Overnight, Israel's military clashed with the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group along a strategic river in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops pushed farther north.
Jonathan Conricus, a former spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, said Israel expects that Iran would quickly move to direct any sanctions relief to restore its military capability and boost proxy groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza.
“We’re not done fighting, because the Iranian regime isn’t done,” said Conricus, who is a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.
Trump on Wednesday also reinforced his call that the deal should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered agreements from Trump’s first term aimed at normalizing diplomatic and economic relations with Israel.
“We’re, you know, requesting strongly that they join,” Trump said.
Trump’s optimism that the other Middle Eastern and majority-Muslim countries could soon sign on to the accords might be overly ambitious.
For example, Saudi Arabia, the most significant power in the Arab world and long seen as the biggest prize for the normalization effort, has insisted that establishing a guaranteed path to a Palestinian state remains a precondition. It's something that Israel vehemently opposes.
Trump pushed for the Abraham Accords during a call with leaders of Mideast allies over the weekend.
Barbara Leaf, a retired U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and senior State Department official during President Joe Biden's Democratic administration, said officials from Gulf countries who were on the call told her that Trump's pitch was greeted by “stunned silence.” A person familiar with the call disputed that characterization and said that some regional allies responded positively to the president’s call to join the accords. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity about the private conversation.
Leaf, a distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute, said that Middle Eastern allies of the United States recognize that Iran will likely use any money from sanctions relief to bolster its military capabilities. Still, they have been supportive of Trump’s efforts to end the conflict.
“They see no other way out,” Leaf said of American allies in the region. “And they see no other way out because of many of these early mistakes that the president and the administration made in conducting the war.”
AP writers Matthew Lee, Michelle L. Price and Darlene Superville in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., Samy Magdy in Cairo and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump, center right, attends a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room, at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump, next to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, right, speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington, as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, front left, and Vice President JD Vance, front right, look on. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump, next to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump departs Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Bethesda, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
