200/69 Thursday, April 9, 2026
A widespread system outage has disrupted banking and payment services across Russia, preventing users from making card payments, withdrawing cash from ATMs, or accessing mobile banking applications for several hours. The incident affected major banks including Sberbank, VTB Bank, Alfa-Bank, T-Bank, and Gazprombank, impacting multiple regions, including Moscow, with a large number of user complaints reported.
The outage began on the morning of April 3, with users experiencing issues accessing apps, transferring money, and withdrawing funds. As a result, many businesses were forced to accept cash only, leading to long queues in various locations. Russia’s National Payment Card System stated that the disruption was caused by a technical issue at one of the banks and did not affect customer account balances. However, some reports linked the issue to problems within Sberbank’s systems and suggested that VPN usage may have been a contributing factor.
The disruption also impacted public transportation systems. Metro stations and railway services in Moscow were unable to process card payments, prompting authorities to allow passengers to travel for free to reduce congestion. The incident occurred amid increasingly strict internet control measures by the Russian government, including restrictions on VPN usage and tighter regulation of online access. Some experts have suggested that these VPN restrictions may have unintentionally contributed to the outage. Meanwhile, Roskomnadzor reportedly ordered certain media outlets to remove content linking the incident to VPN control policies.