Russians are increasingly looking for ways to leave the country as widespread mobile internet shutdowns and economic strain upend daily life, according to Google Trends data highlighted by Verstka.
Interest in searches like “leave Russia” fell after the September 2022 mobilization but has surged again since late 2025.
In January 2026, search interest jumped to 75 points, with March averaging 88 – approaching previous peaks. Yandex searches show a more modest rebound.
Moscow residents have been forced to rely on walkie-talkies, pagers, and paper maps for communication after more than two weeks of near-total blackouts in the Russian capital.
Wi-Fi and mobile disruptions have affected central Moscow as well as northern and southern districts, leaving residents struggling to stay in touch and businesses reporting steep financial losses.
Since the outages began, sales of pagers have jumped 73 percent, according to Wildberries, Russia’s largest retailer.
Walkie-talkie and landline phone purchases have risen by more than a quarter, while sales of paper city maps and printed Moscow guides have nearly tripled. Daily business losses in Moscow from the shutdowns are estimated at up to one billion roubles ($12.5 million).
Authorities say the restrictions are meant to counter Ukrainian long-range drone attacks that use mobile and GPS networks.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the blackouts would continue as long as “necessary to ensure the safety of our citizens” and accused Ukraine of using “increasingly sophisticated attack methods.”
Critics and industry experts, however, suggest the outages may also reflect government preparations to limit Russians’ access to the global internet. Under new legislation signed by President Vladimir Putin, security services can now compel internet providers to suspend mobile services at their discretion.
State Duma lawmakers have complained that the outages have left them cut off from the internet inside parliament, while Peskov said even the presidential administration has been forced to switch to landline phones.
Internet shutdowns have grown more frequent across Russia since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Research group Top10VPN estimates that Russia recorded the highest number of internet disruptions worldwide in 2025, totaling more than 37,000 hours and affecting roughly 146 million people.