# The Yandex outage probably didn’t blitz Russian bots

https://mins.news/en/item/96730

- The Verge, 2026-10-12 15:43 UTC
- Tech
- Original: https://www.theverge.com/tech/1009594/russian-bots-yandex-outage-drone-strikes-debunk

> After Ukrainian drone strikes knocked Russian data centers offline, a circulating chart appeared to show bot traffic plunging. But it likely tracks automated Yandex web-crawler requests, not Russian disinformation bots on social media; Cloudflare data indicates Russian bot activity overall stayed largely unchanged. Another chart claiming AfD-related activity plunged was questioned as possibly AI-generated and has no established source. Many Yandex systems remain offline, and its payment service head gave no restoration timeline.

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- [Have Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centres affected Russian online disinformation?](https://mins.news/en/video/98704) — France 24 English, 2026-10-13
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