Access Restored to Wikipedia in Russia After Overnight Outage

Aug. 28, 2026 Sirperry1 (CC BY-SA 4.0) Russian users reported widespread outages of Wikipedia early Friday before access was restored later in the day, independent monitoring groups said. Issues with opening the online encyclopedia began shortly after midnight Moscow time. Monitoring services Sboy and Downdetector tracked a spike in outage reports across major cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk. Users reported that Wikipedia remained accessible when using VPNs. Network testing data from OONI Explorer, the world’s largest open dataset on internet censorship, reportedly showed access anomaly rates for Wikipedia’s Russian-language version briefly hit 100% early Friday, while hitting 75% for the English-language version. Access began to be restored and disruption rates dropped significantly by 10 a.m. Moscow time. The tech platform Habr reported that Wikipedia was inaccessible in Russia for eight hours. Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has not commented on the outage. Roskomnadzor has fined Wikipedia multiple times over its refusal to delete articles related to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian officials have pushed for a domestic alternative to Wikipedia to combat what they claimed to be its Western bias. Those efforts have failed so far. Fears that authorities may try to block Wikipedia in Russia have grown amid an ongoing wartime crackdown on dissent. Wikipedia’s Russian-language version continues operating despite the closure of its operator, the Wikimedia Foundation’s Russian division. Read more about: Internet Sign up for our free weekly newsletter Our weekly newsletter contains a hand-picked selection of news, features, analysis and more from The Moscow Times. You will receive it in your mailbox every Friday. Never miss the latest news from Russia. Preview Subscribers agree to the Privacy Policy We sent a confirmation to your email. Please confirm your subscription. A Message from The Moscow Times: Dear readers, We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent." These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia. We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help. Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact. By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us. Once Monthly Annual Continue Not ready to support today? Remind me later. × Remind me next month Remind me Thank you! Your reminder is set. We will send you one reminder email a month from now. For details on the personal data we collect and how it is used, please see our Privacy Policy. Read more Russia Briefly Bans Etsy Over Knockoff Designer Goods – Kommersant Access to the website was restored after Etsy removed the knockoff page that sold fake products from brands like Gucci. Russia Launches Homemade TikTok Alternative State-owned media conglomerate launches new video-sharing platform as Russia ramps up pressure on foreign tech companies. Russian Soyuz Rocket Launches 36 New U.K. Satellites The satellites are owned by British operator OneWeb, which aims to provide broadband internet everywhere in the world. Russia Starts Blocking Google Docs After Navalny Shares Anti-Kremlin Vote Strategy – Monitor Russia has put increasing pressure on Google to block search results related to Navalny's Smart Voting campaign.