MOSCOW—A wave of unusual website outages rippled across the Russian internet this week: A courier service said its clients couldn’t place orders; an online English school had to cancel its lessons; and Volvo auto dealerships couldn’t carry out tests for repairs.
Hundreds of websites and online businesses felt the collateral damage from the Russian communications regulator’s attempt to shut a messaging app popular among Kremlin officials and antigovernment protesters alike for their belief in its impenetrable security.
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