Recently, Steam users from Russia have started actively complaining about malfunctions in the system. Some cannot log in, and sometimes there are problems with launching games.
One community member, under the nickname Honor2301, described what it looks like:
Absolutely no game can be launched through Steam. There is a perpetual "launching" banner next to the "play" button. If I launch any tools (like Soundpad, Wallpaper Engine) – they launch fine. Clearing download cache, verifying game integrity, restarting PC, installing new drivers, none of this helped me.
But, as Honor2301 said, if you completely disconnect from the Internet, then it becomes possible to launch Steam games again:
With a complete internet disconnection, I can launch games. Steam allows them to launch fully and notifies that there is no internet, so there will be no cloud synchronization.
Players are complaining on specialized services, such as Downdetector or detector404 — where there is a surge in complaints, as well as on the Steam forum. Judging by the comments, many of those who encountered this failure are Rostelecom clients.
According to data from the service "Steam Status", Steam is generally working normally worldwide and no critical failures have been recorded, so players from Russia believe that the problem is still local.