Mobile internet access at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum will be blocked hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin's keynote speech, organizers said.
"Due to technical work being carried out on the infrastructure of mobile operators, there will be temporarily no Internet access from mobile devices," the state-run Roscongress Foundation said.
Forum participants and guests were advised to use a dedicated WiFi network instead.
Citing an event participant and a telecom employee, the Faridaily project reported that the move is part of security measures enacted to prevent a drone attack.
Putin was scheduled to speak Friday afternoon local time.
The Faridaily project added that access to the Internet was limited in the Russian cities of Sochi and Adler earlier this month when Putin attended the Eurasian Congress. The outlet reported that "taxi applications [and] bank cards did not work, and cellular calls almost did not go through."
According to The Moscow Times, the Kremlin seemed to confirm the project's report when asked about security measures for this year's economic forum.
"Of course, both safety and digital security measures are being strengthened quite significantly, you could even say it's unprecedented," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. "The enemy acts brazenly and doesn't miss an opportunity to inflict damage. Just use WiFi, and everything will be fine."
According to Newsweek, Russia has been hit by a string of drone attacks in recent weeks, including in the capital city of Moscow, in the Kursk and Bryansk regions near the Ukraine border, and Smolensk in western Russia.
Russia claimed on May 3 that it foiled a Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin, calling it an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Putin and promising retaliation for what it called a "terrorist" act.
Peskov told Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti that Putin wasn't in the Kremlin at the time and was at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.
Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak denied any involvement in the attack.
"Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin," he said. He added that the claims would serve as a pretext for Russia "to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities" in coming days.
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum has been an annual event since 1997, usually drawing thousands of participants from around the world. This year's event has been snubbed by both Western and Russian companies amid Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
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