Russian authorities intend to disable mobile internet and the ability to send SMS messages on the SIM cards of Russian citizens returning to the country from abroad, reports Kommersant, citing four sources from the telecom industry. The restriction is expected to be applied within the first 24 hours of returning to the Russian Federation.
This measure targets not only SIM cards that are in international roaming, but also those that have been inactive in Russia for the last three days.
There is already a similar mechanism applied to foreign cards connecting to Russian mobile networks. For Russian citizens, the government plans to send an SMS with a link, through which the user must confirm that they are a real person, not a bot. After this confirmation, the internet connection and SMS service will be restored. However, one of the publication’s interlocutors stated that it is unclear whether telecommunications operators have the necessary technical capabilities to implement these restrictions.
According to Nikita Danilov, the general director of the company Fly Drone, the “cooling period” for SIM cards could be introduced as a measure against the use of drones in attacks on Russian infrastructure. However, he emphasizes that such a measure does not provide guaranteed protection, and that radio-electronic or physical means are also necessary to counteract drones.
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