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.
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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)
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday charged a man who authorities say sold a gun to the Old Dominion University shooter despite the gunman’s previous conviction in a terrorism case.
Kenya Chapman is facing federal charges in connection to the sale of the weapon to Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former Army National Guard member who yelled “Allahu akbar” before he opened fire in a classroom at the Virginia school on Thursday, according to authorities. One person was killed and two others were injured in the shooting.
Jalloh was barred from possessing a gun given a previous felony conviction for attempting to aid the Islamic State extremist group.
Chapman is charged with making a false statement during a firearm purchase and engaging in the business of firearms dealing without a license.
Chapman told agents in an interview that he stole the gun from a car in Newport News, Virginia, about a year before the shooting and recently sold it to Jalloh. Chapman said he met Jalloh at work and that Jalloh told him he needed the gun for protection as a delivery driver, according to court papers. Chapman told agents he knew Jalloh had spent some time behind bars but denied knowing he had a previous felony conviction.
Chapman told agents he had no idea the man would commit the attack, the affidavit says.
Earlier Friday, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press that Jalloh used a gun with an obliterated serial number, potentially complicating investigators’ efforts to determine how he obtained a firearm.
The official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation, said investigators would have to re-surface the number in order to trace the gun.
Jalloh was a former Army National Guard member who pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to aid the Islamic State extremist group.
Jalloh, who yelled “Allahu akbar” before opening fire, was subdued and killed by ROTC students, according to FBI officials who praised the students' bravery for preventing further harm. The shooting killed an ROTC leader who was a professor of military science at ODU, and left two others hurt.
According to the affidavit released Friday, the “class/meeting” was attended by both active duty servicemembers and ROTC students. Jalloh twice asked those in the room to confirm that it was an ROTC event before he began to shoot, the complaint said.
One of them, who was hospitalized in critical condition, has been upgraded to fair condition, according to Sentara Health. The other was treated and released.
Jalloh, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in the Islamic State group case, was released from federal custody in December 2024. He was on supervised release, which is comparable to probation.
He was released about 2 1/2 years early after completing a drug treatment program, a person familiar with the matter told The AP. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
It wasn’t clear how Jalloh qualified for the program, which allows inmates to shave up to a year off their sentences. Inmates serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses typically aren’t eligible for such programs or other sentence-reducing credits.
A message seeking information about Jalloh’s incarceration and release was left with the federal Bureau of Prisons.
At a news conference Thursday, a reporter asked the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk field office, Dominique Evans, if there was a mention of the ongoing war in Iran. “None whatsoever,” she replied. The U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran with missile strikes on Feb. 28.
The FBI has warned that Iranian operatives may be planning drone attacks on targets in California. Two men brought explosives to a far-right protest outside the New York mayoral mansion on Saturday. Investigators allege they were inspired by the Islamic State group. And on Thursday, a man of Lebanese origin was fatally shot after driving his vehicle into a Detroit-area synagogue in what the FBI called a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”
Evans on Thursday also requested the public's help as authorities continue to investigate the shooting and Jalloh, saying no detail is too small.
Old Dominion University Police Chief Garrett Shelton said less than 10 minutes passed between when officers were called about a shooting in the university’s business school building and when responders determined the shooter was dead. Authorities have not said exactly how the ROTC students killed Jalloh, though Evans said they did not shoot him.
The U.S. Army Cadet Command has said on social media that three members of the U.S. Army ROTC program at Old Dominion were injured, including one who died.
ROTC is a program where students receive a scholarship to attend college while training to become commissioned officers in the U.S. military.
The victim who died was Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, a 42-year-old from Chesapeake who leaves behind a spouse and a child, the U.S. Army Cadet Command at Old Dominion said in a social media post.
Shah attended ODU as an ROTC student, according to his biography on the university’s website, and had returned in 2022 as a leader for the program. In the Army, Shah piloted helicopters over Iraq, Afghanistan and Eastern Europe.
“Above all else, Lt. Col. Shah embodied what it means to be a devoted family man, a revered leader, and heroic protector even in his final moments,” Old Dominion President Brian Hemphill said in a Friday message to the university community.
On Friday morning, in honor of his close friend Shah, Eddie Flack poured out a bottle of Wild Turkey on a lawn where flagpoles stand on campus across from Constant Hall. Flack, also of Chesapeake, said the two became firm friends while enrolled at ODU.
“I love you Brandon. Rest well with the creator. I love you,” Flack said as he poured out the whiskey and looked up at the sky.
“Sorry Brandon. The world needs more love,” Flack said, weeping. “We need to spread more love and not this hatred."
The shooter also had a background in military service. Jalloh, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone, served as a specialist with the Virginia Army National Guard from 2009 until 2015, when he was honorably discharged.
Durkin Richer reported from Washington and Sisak reported from New York City. Associated Press reporters Michael Biesecker in Washington; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; John Raby in Cross Lanes, West Virginia; and Olivia Diaz in Richmond, Virginia, contributed.
This story has been corrected to show the AP reporter in the byline is Allen G. Breed, not Alan.
Eddie Flack pour out a bottle of whiskey at the base of the flagpoles in front of Constant Hall as he pays respect to slain Lt. Col. Brandon Shah at Old Dominion University on Friday, March 13, 2026 in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)
A person sits at the front door of Constant Hall, where yesterday shooting occurred on Friday, March 13, 2026 at Old Dominion Universiy in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed).
Police are present at Constant Hall, where yesterday shooting occurred on Friday, March 13, 2026 at Old Dominion Universiy in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed).
This photo provided by the U.S. Army shows Maj. Brandon Shah, Friday, Jan. 14, 2020, in Illesheim, Germany. (Pfc. Savannah Roy/U.S. Army/DVIDS via AP)
