Russian news website, RBC stated that Google has disconnected its services from global caching servers. Google Global Cache automatically stores the content popular in the region and allows internet service providers to provide Google’s content faster to the customers. Thus, without global cache servers, users in Russia will experience slower access to Google’s content, because they’ll have to get the content from the U.S. servers directly.
Sanctions continue
While some internet service providers stated that they didn’t receive a such notification from the tech giant, Radiosvyaz and MIPT Telecom claimed that they are affected by the decision currently. ISPs stated that the caching servers were shut down on the 19th of May and they received a notification from Google a few days after. The notice says that Google decided to shut down caching servers for these companies due to legal practices, which include the companies on the sanctions lists.
Two companies have relatively small market share, thus it will not affect a lot of internet users. However, if Google decides to shut down its servers for other ISPs too, it can drastically lower the speed of accessing Google services in the country. The caching service reduces external traffic between 70% to 90%.