Russia pledges to lift Belarusian SIM card block by year-end – Ministry of Communications
Russia has promised to soon scrap the mandatory 24-hour block on SIM cards used by Belarusians entering the country. According to Pavel Tkach, First Deputy Minister of Communications and Informatisation of Belarus, the ministry expects this issue to be “unambiguously resolved” by the end of the year.
Instead of waiting 24 hours for mobile internet and SMS services to be unblocked, Belarusians will need to undergo verification upon entering Russia: a message with a link to a special verification resource will be sent to their phone. By entering a specific set of digits from an image into a designated field, the block will be lifted.
According to Tkach, this procedure has so far only been tested and has already received positive feedback that «it works.» But not yet from all operators.
«The Russian side confirmed that the testing process for lifting the cooling-off regime for Belarusian citizens roaming in Russia, by means of entering a captcha, is being finalised. Three of the four largest Russian operators have already, in essence, implemented these services,» state news agency BELTA quoted Tkach as saying.
Earlier, Belarusian operators – MTS and A1 – also announced the launch of such a service. It was reported at the time that their Russian roaming partners were testing it – the Russian operator Megafon had fully launched the function, while three others – MTS, Beeline and T2 – were reportedly still only testing it.
Ждать 24 часа не придётся? Операторы запустили упрощённую верификацию для белорусов в роуминге в РФ
To recap, Russian operators introduced the mandatory 24-hour block on data and SMS services for all roaming subscribers on 6 October 2025. The block begins at the moment of first network registration and is lifted automatically after 24 hours. Voice services remain available during this period.