{"id":27508,"date":"2026-04-15T02:37:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T02:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/27508\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T02:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T02:37:18","slug":"kremlin-reportedly-eases-internet-restrictions-as-putins-approval-ratings-slide-novaya-gazeta-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/27508\/","title":{"rendered":"Kremlin reportedly eases internet restrictions as Putin&#8217;s approval ratings slide \u2014 Novaya Gazeta Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Photo: Alexander Kazakov \/ EPA\" class=\"JwhQl\" height=\"0\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776220638_362_large.jpeg\" width=\"0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo: Alexander Kazakov \/ EPA<\/p>\n<p>The Russian authorities have decided to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.ru\/society\/559151-kreml-mozet-povremenit-c-ograniceniami-interneta-na-fone-padenia-rejtinga-putina\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.ru\/society\/559151-kreml-mozet-povremenit-c-ograniceniami-interneta-na-fone-padenia-rejtinga-putina\">slow down<\/a> their blocking of Telegram, Forbes Russia reported Tuesday, citing a source familiar with internal discussions.<\/p>\n<p>According to the source, the move is intended to relieve some of the pressure in Russian society amid new tax amendments, price increases, and internet restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, Bloomberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-04-14\/russia-slows-internet-crackdown-as-voter-anger-hits-putin-ratinghttps:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-04-14\/russia-slows-internet-crackdown-as-voter-anger-hits-putin-rating\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-04-14\/russia-slows-internet-crackdown-as-voter-anger-hits-putin-ratinghttps:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-04-14\/russia-slows-internet-crackdown-as-voter-anger-hits-putin-rating\">reported<\/a> that the Kremlin may be reconsidering its position on internet blocking in Russia, amid concerns the measures could negatively affect Vladimir Putin&#8217;s approval ratings. Several senior officials had warned the Putin administration in recent days of the political and economic risks associated with the blocking, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center reported that Putin&#8217;s approval rating had fallen to 67.8 percent \u2014 its lowest level since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg noted that ratings this low create problems for the Kremlin ahead of September&#8217;s State Duma elections, and contradict the authorities&#8217; own statements about the unity of the Russian people with Putin amid the war.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.ru\/politics\/14\/04\/2026\/69de07789a794753e35d7d0e\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.ru\/politics\/14\/04\/2026\/69de07789a794753e35d7d0e\">said<\/a> Tuesday that a majority of Russian citizens &#8220;understand the appropriateness of and need for&#8221; internet blocking in Russia, adding that the restrictions would be lifted once &#8220;the need for them disappears.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Alexander Kazakov \/ EPA The Russian authorities have decided to slow down their blocking of Telegram, Forbes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[14369,416,307,14364,5619,14367,14368,14366,14363,14365,334,9593,330,328,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-27508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vladimir-putin","8":"tag-azar","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-gorbachev","12":"tag-investigation","13":"tag-kostyuchenko","14":"tag-latynina","15":"tag-martynov","16":"tag-novaya-gazeta-europe","17":"tag-politkovskaya","18":"tag-putin","19":"tag-stories","20":"tag-ukraine","21":"tag-vladimir-putin","22":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116406403130383374","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}