Residents of Volgograd, Maksim Konobeevskikh and his father Alexander, have filed a lawsuit against PJSC VimpelCom, demanding the restoration of mobile internet service and compensation for moral harm. The claim was submitted to the Krasnooktyabrsky District Court on October 28. The plaintiffs say that since October 22, despite having a positive balance on their Beeline phone numbers, their mobile internet access was effectively blocked except for websites on a so-called whitelist, including Avito, VKontakte, Ozon and Gosuslugi.
The lawsuit states that because of the outage they were unable to send work emails, stay in touch with management, withdraw cash from ATMs, pay utility bills, pay for parking, or collect orders at pickup points. They assessed their moral damages at 50,000 rubles each. According to Maksim Konobeevskikh, the case is not only about personal compensation but also about creating court practice favorable to consumers.
“Either the authorities created exceptions for themselves, or the issue has nothing to do with the danger of drones,” Konobeevskikh said, describing a situation in which, according to him, mobile internet still works in the city center near government buildings and in the lower part of Mamayev Kurgan.
Volgograd lawyer Ivan Ivanov said he had been sending inquiries since September to regional authorities, the prosecutor’s office, Roskomnadzor, Rospotrebnadzor and telecom operators to find out why mobile internet was being restricted, but received no substantive response. He is preparing a separate lawsuit and advises residents to seek recalculations and compensation. First Department lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov said that if the plaintiffs succeed, a surge of similar cases may follow, though he considers victory unlikely if the shutdowns were imposed by state agencies.
According to the Runet Monitor project, as of November 12, residents in 59 Russian regions had reported mobile internet disruptions, and in 43 of those regions whitelist access was also being used. In replies to customers, mobile operators say the restrictions are tied to government decisions and security measures. On November 10, it became known that operators would be required to cut internet access at the request of the FSB, and in such cases they would not bear responsibility for service interruptions.
The authorities say the shutdowns are meant to counter drones. At the same time, rights advocates and digital rights projects note that such measures affect daily life, healthcare, transport and payments. According to estimates by the Internet Protection Society, one day without mobile internet in the Volgograd region could cost the regional economy about 163 million rubles.