Internet is down and generals are falling out of windows: what is happening in Moscow?

In Russia, an unprecedented blackout of communications is underway. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, appeared in an unusual video message to announce that mobile internet outages will continue as long as it is "necessary" to "ensure the safety of citizens".

The official rationale implicates Ukraine, accused of conducting increasingly sophisticated attacks, particularly the need to defend against enemy drones controlled via mobile networks.

This explanation, however, appears shaky. Connectivity suspensions have become systematic : 655 blocks in June of last year and 2,099 in July, surpassing the total annual global count in just one month.

Countering the government’s alibi is the very map of blackouts: the network has collapsed in almost 80% of the national territory, indiscriminately affecting even remote areas, far beyond the presumed reach of any Ukrainian drone. A true digital iron curtain is taking shape.

Foreign platforms relying on international CDNs like Amazon and Cloudflare no longer load, confining users to exclusively domestic resources. This new perimeter has already been ironically dubbed "Cheburnet" online.

Meanwhile, as ties with the outside world are severed to compress freedom of expression and limit contacts with the world, the Kremlin has accelerated the launch of "Max", a state messaging service established by decree from Vladimir Putin.

To make matters even more unsettling, there is the coincidence with the mysterious death of a high-ranking general, Aleksandr Leonov, who fell from a window. A tragically recurring dynamic in Putin's Russia, often associated with the purging of inconvenient figures, which in this context appears as a warning signal.

Why disconnect the entire country from international networks? Why force citizens to migrate to interceptable government channels, while top officials "slip" out of the palaces?

Putting these events in order, the increasingly persistent hypothesis of a possible coup d'état in the making to depose Vladimir Putin takes shape. In this interpretation, the blackout would not serve to stop nonexistent drones in Siberia, but to prevent communications between potential internal factions and to crush any mobilization in its infancy. The death of General Leonov could be just the tip of the iceberg of a silent purge, conducted while the country is isolated from the world and placed under strict surveillance. Russia appears to be locked in a digital cage, the key has been thrown away.

It remains to be seen whether the Kremlin truly fears the drones from Kiev or is struggling for its own internal survival.