Wird Putin nervös?

Putin may not be nearing his downfall and delivering Hitler rants in his various bunkers, but there are a lot indications that he’s nervous—among them, three weeks of severe disruptions to mobile internet service in Moscow, apparently ordered by the FSB and not by the communications oversight agency Roskomnadzor, which normally has online censorship in its purview.

The restoration of normally functioning mobile internet in Moscow on March 24 is likely to reduce the protest momentum in the capital; but the suppression of Telegram, on top of the prior near-complete ban YouTube and other services, could still bring people out into the streets. Meanwhile, two large cities in the provinces, Penza and Vladimir, have approved rallies for March 29 and April 1 respectively—which could embolden some young people in other locations to defy the ban. In the relentlessly repressive climate of Russia in 2026, any protest could be a small crack in the totalitarian edifice. Will the spring and summer of 2026 see a new wave of repression—or, just possibly, the beginning of the end of the Putin regime?