Russia Starts Blocking Google Docs After Navalny Shares Anti-Kremlin Vote Strategy – Monitor

Russian mobile network providers have begun blocking Google Docs after jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s team used the platform in its campaign to defeat ruling party incumbents, independent monitors said Wednesday.

The outages affected users of Russia’s state-run telecommunications provider Rostelecom, as well as the mobile networks Megafon and MTS, according to GlobalCheck, a service that monitors and helps bypass blocked websites in Russia. The online privacy NGO Roskomsvoboda added that Tele2 customers were also unable to access docs.google.com.

As of Thursday morning, Google Docs was accessible to customers of all Russian telecom providers, GlobalCheck said.