Massive Outage Affects the Country's Digital Infrastructure

On Tuesday evening, August 18, 2026, Russia faced an unprecedented outage of the internet and digital services. The first mass complaints from users began to arrive on the Downdetector portal after 20:00 MSK. At its peak, the outage map covered almost the entire territory of the country, from Moscow and St. Petersburg to remote regions. Residents faced the inability to open websites, use marketplaces, social networks, messengers, banking applications, and even the Steam platform.

Reg.ru and Power Supply Issues

As it turned out, the epicenter of the crisis was the largest domain name registrar — the company «Reg.ru». The organization explained that the malfunction was related to power supply interruptions at a major communication node. This led to a cascading effect, where many other resources dependent on the company's infrastructure were also affected. The situation was exacerbated by a temporary power outage in several districts of Moscow, including Gagarinsky and Khamovniki, where a technological switching of power sources was being carried out.

Restoration of Operation and Consequences

By nine in the evening, access to the network began to gradually recover for some users. However, the consequences of the outage were significant: many users could not make online purchases, use banking services, or communicate in messengers. Experts note that such outages may indicate the vulnerability of the country's digital infrastructure and the need to modernize power supply and backup systems.

Contradictory Data

While some sources indicate that the outage was caused solely by power supply problems, other experts suggest that other factors may have been involved, including technical malfunctions in server operations. So far, there are no official confirmations or refutations of these versions, and the situation remains under observation.

User and Expert Reaction

Users on social networks expressed their dissatisfaction with the situation, noting that such outages are becoming more frequent. Experts in cybersecurity and digital infrastructure are calling on the authorities to pay more attention to system modernization and increasing their resilience to external influences.