‘Nothing works’: Russians react as intelligence services shut down the internet

Like many people in Moscow, Alina, a 34-year-old project manager, lost the habit of using cash after years of ubiquitous electronic payments. She had to rediscover her analogue skills this year when Russia’s intelligence agency took effective control of the country’s internet, denying access to millions of people in the capital and beyond. “I had to ask my colleagues for cash to pay for my lunch. Then to buy me a bus ticket so I could get back home,” Alina says, rememberi