Mobile services in Russia suffer outages as police disperse anti-Kremlin protesters - monitoring site

People take part in a rally in support of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Vladivostok, Russia January 23, 2021. REUTERS/Sergei Shevchenko

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Mobile phone and internet services in Russia suffered outages on Saturday as police cracked down on anti-Kremlin protesters, the monitoring site downdetector.ru showed.

The authorities sometimes interfere with mobile communication networks to make it harder for protesters to communicate among themselves and share video footage online.

Police detained more than 200 people in Russia's Far East and Siberia on Saturday as protesters defied bitter cold and a ban by authorities to stage nationwide rallies to demand the release of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. [L1N2JY03U]

(Reporting by Anastasia Teterevleva; Editing by Andrew Osborn)