On February 24 in Moscow, when social media was full of the news that Russia had broken its promise and invaded Ukraine overnight, Oleg Shakirov noticed that Facebook wasn't loading properly.
The text appeared fine but there were just grey squares where the images and videos should have been.
"First they started slowing down Facebook," the internet security expert said.
"Then after a week they blocked it completely."
Until recently, Russia's internet looked, at least on the surface, something like Australia's: Russians posted videos on Instagram and TikTok, paid for Netflix and Spotify with PayPal, advertised their business on Facebook, sold goods on Etsy, and used Microsoft Office at work.
Now, all of these are unavailable as a result of the war, with foreign companies withdrawing services and the state looking to increase its control over how Russians use the internet.
A digital iron curtain is falling on Russia — the equivalent of the political boundary dividing Europe during the Cold War.
Here's what happens when the internet gets dismantled.
The government throttles internet speeds
Though many first noticed the changes on February 24, in fact the Russian government began actively slowing the country's internet the night before the invasion of Ukraine.
This is the conclusion of Melbourne's Monash IP Observatory, which remotely monitors the activity and quality of the internet, and can target any location around the world at any given time.
On February 23, the night before the invasion, Russia's internet saw a sharp spike in latency, or the amount of time it takes for a data packet to travel from one designated point to another.
The spike points to congestion, which suggests the Russian state was either censoring online content or deliberately slowing the internet to restrict access to news media, says Simon Angus, a Monash University data scientist and director of the observatory.
"This isn't merely that people suddenly got interested in an invasion. It hadn't occurred yet," Dr Angus said.
Russia had done this before, said Paul Raschky, another member of the Monash IP Observatory.
With TV, radio and newspapers now "more or less state-controlled", throttling internet speeds has proved an effective way of preventing civilians reporting on what was happening in their region, Professor Raschky said.
"The internet is the one source left where you can get diverse opinion."
Social media and news sites blocked
In the first week of the invasion, Russia's war went badly, with high losses, a failure to meet stated objectives, and an online barrage of videos showing destroyed Russian tanks, trucks and aircraft.
At the same time, Ukraine assembled a large global army of volunteer hackers that took the fight to the aggressor.
This "IT army" temporarily disabled many Russian government websites in the first week, Mr Shakirov said.
"They also targeted Russian banks, Russian media companies, and there is now a disruption of one major Russian ecommerce website."
In response to the military setbacks and cyber attacks, the Russian government tightened the screws.
By the end of the first week, it had blocked Facebook and Twitter as well as foreign news services including BBC Russia, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle and Radio Free Europe.
Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a law punishing "fake news", especially about the invasion, with up to 15 years in prison.
Next, the government warned that it would block Instagram, which is far more widely used in Russia that Facebook.
Russian Instagram was flooded with farewells as users posted links to their profiles on other platforms, such as Telegram.
'We can't sell anything'
By platform and by website, the internet was dismantled, Mr Shakirov said.
This unprecedented change appeared to Russians as a series of error messages, stalled loading screens and email updates.
Spotify emailed Mr Shakirov to say it had cancelled his premium service, since the payment systems it used were withdrawing from Russia.
Microsoft said it was suspending new sales to Russians, which could apply to Russians renewing their subscriptions.
"I know of one organisation that completely switched from Office365 to the Russian domestic alternative," Mr Shakirov said.
Dmitry Kornouhov sold wooden paddleboards to Europeans on Etsy until Paypal withdrew from Russia on March 6.
"We can't sell anything," he said.
"I'm just sitting at my laptop and looking for solutions."
Many relying on the internet have tried to emigrate, said Igor Baikov, a young tech company founder in Moscow.
Businesses have especially struggled with the loss of Instagram, he said.
"These businesses bought ads and used Instagram to get clients, now it's all gone."
VPNs only a partial solution
VPNs, or virtual private networks, are a cheap piece of software that masks online behaviour as a way of evading internet restrictions.
In Australia, they're typically used for pirating movies.
In Russia, you now need a VPN to do the most basic things online.
After the invasion, VPN downloads surged more than 1,000 per cent in Russia.
Despite this, they're still relatively uncommon, Mr Shakirov said.
"Most people do not go to such lengths to install additional software."
They're also a pain to use, he added.
"Many Russian government sites and news sites, they now basically filter international traffic, due to the [Ukraine IT army] attacks."
"So when you use a VPN, you cannot go to a Russian website."
And VPNs don't solve the problem of the platforms themselves blocking Russian accounts, Mr Kornouhov said.
"I can use a VPN to open the page, but Facebook has closed the advertising to Russians," he said.
"There's not much market here inside the country, so for years we've advertised in Europe. And that's closed now."
Fibre-optic carriers cut links
After one week, Russia's internet was both slow and patchy, with websites under attack and platforms either blocked or withdrawing their services.
Then it got worse.
In the second week, there was a second, larger spike in latency.
This time it wasn't the Russian government throttling speeds, but external companies withdrawing bandwidth.
Cogent, a US backbone provider operating thousands of kilometres worth of fibre optic links that carry a quarter of the world's internet traffic, cut its internet service to Russia on March 5.
"And exactly at that hour, those of us in the measurement community saw significant changes in latency in Russia," Dr Angus said.
A few days later, Lumen, a second US backbone provider, also pulled out.
More Russian internet traffic had to be routed through the remaining connections, which caused congestion and higher latency.
This made it difficult to hold conversations on Zoom, to stream foreign TV news services, or to send large videos.
"We know in these situations the potent form of citizen reporting and truth-telling is video," Dr Angus said.
Now, with each passing day, the quality of internet traffic is deteriorating.
The peak latency has gone down, but the period of high latency begins at an earlier time each day, Dr Angus said.
"The trajectory is a negative one for the internet experience in Russia."
It could get a lot worse
It's likely more services will be blocked.
On the weekend, Russia warned Youtube to stop "anti-Russian" ads, accusing its owner, Google, of acts "of a terrorist nature".
"There are rumours they're going to block Youtube next," Mr Shakirov said.
There are also fears that Russia may go even further.
The Kremlin recently ordered Russian websites to switch from foreign hosting services to Russian-owned ones, and to begin using domain name system services located in Russia.
The government says this is to protect websites from attack, but it also makes it easier to disconnect Russia from the internet.
If that happened, the Russian internet would resemble a vast intranet, with some moderated connections to the wider world.
Russia could become "something similar to a North Korean dark spot on the internet" Dr Angus said.
Many Russians hope the restrictions are temporary, Mr Shakirov said.
But even if peace breaks out, he doubts the government will quickly wind back its "information control".
"This will require some kind of change in the political situation."
