Internet access issues for Rostelecom subscribers stem from a disruption at a European traffic exchange point. The situation has been described as a technical problem at one of the major international routing hubs, which can briefly hinder the ability to reach certain foreign websites and online services. Rostelecom has acknowledged the outage and explained that it arises from upstream infrastructure outside Russia, which some international destinations rely on to route traffic. This means that a subset of overseas resources could be intermittently slower or temporarily unavailable while the fault is being addressed.
In the early hours of May 23, several media outlets and active online channels reported that Russian users of the provider were experiencing connectivity difficulties. The affected services included various foreign online platforms, with users noting trouble loading or connecting to international destinations. Rostelecom’s technical operations teams reported that the scale of the problem is significant, indicating that it affects a broad range of routes and services rather than isolated sites alone.
As the situation developed, Rostelecom stated that steps were being taken to mitigate impact by enabling redundant international communication channels. The goal behind these redundant routes is to restore normal access more quickly and to reduce the chance of a prolonged outage. The company also reassured customers that local networks within Russia were operating normally, which helps maintain internal communication and local internet access during the disruption.
Earlier reports noted that there were widespread complaints about the timing and reliability of foreign internet services for Rostelecom users during the incident. The provider’s support teams worked to diagnose the issue and to implement remedies that would preserve service continuity across international links while the upstream problem was being resolved.
There has also been mention in tech news and social channels that external factors, such as recent software updates in consumer devices, may influence how VPNs and remote connections behave on affected networks. While those observations are not definitive, they reflect typical user concerns during international routing disturbances and underscore the importance of robust network resilience and clear communication from service providers during outages.