"We are, in a word, at war." The mayor of Kazan on mobile internet outages.

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      The mayor of Kazan, Ilsur Metshin, spoke to schoolchildren on April 8 as part of the event "Serious Conversation." One of them asked him a question about internet blockages and outages. "We live in a time when, as they say, the country is in danger. And the decisions that are made, including those regarding the restriction of certain networks, are not related to freedom of speech; they are related to the security of the homeland. We are in a state of war, and, in a word, we are at war, so there are some temporary restrictions. <...> Therefore, we hope to live to see better times," Metshin replied. Residents of Tatarstan have been facing mobile internet outages since the spring-summer of 2025. At that time, the authorities explained this as a measure to ensure security during the threat of drone attacks. Since then, outages and blockages across the country have only intensified.