GPS Spoofing Sends St. Petersburg Residents to Karezhskiy Island in Lake Ladoga

St. Petersburg residents began discovering ahead of 9 May that their smartphones' navigation was showing their location as Karezhskiy Island in Lake Ladoga, an empty and uninhabited islet with only a single lighthouse. Similar to Moscow, where GPS displays users in airports, GPS spoofing has become widespread in St. Petersburg. Residents responded to the situation with humour, filling Yandex Maps and 2GIS platforms with thousands of ironic reviews.

St. Petersburg residents were experiencing an unexpected navigation problem this summer: GPS interference, which in Russia is associated with signal jamming used under the pretext of countering drones, is sending their phones' location to Karezhskiy Island in Lake Ladoga.

The Unexpected Popularity of an Empty Island

Karezhskiy Island is merely 1.8 kilometres long and 250 metres wide, an uninhabited islet whose only point of interest is the Karezhskiy Lighthouse. Yet this island has become one of the most "visited" points on St. Petersburg's map due to GPS coordinate spoofing. The phenomenon intensified ahead of 9 May celebrations, when many residents noticed their applications suddenly placing them in the middle of Lake Ladoga.

GPS spoofing, the replacement of navigation system coordinates with falsified data, has become commonplace in Russia. In Moscow, the situation has persisted for some time: navigating the city centre often directs users to Sheremetyevo or Vnukovo airports. Now the same phenomenon has reached Russia's second-largest city.

Ironic Reviews Flooded the Maps

St. Petersburg residents did not let the situation dampen their spirits, instead responding with distinctive humour. In the 2GIS application, virtual "island residents" created their own community narrative, discussing everything from breakfast preferences to registration desires: "Ladies and gentlemen, when will our registration be processed here?"

Yandex Maps has accumulated over 1,300 reviews of Karezhskiy Island and nearly two thousand ratings. The island's average rating stands at 5.0 stars. Users describe ironically how they "teleported" to the island by scooter, how taxi rides to the island are admittedly somewhat expensive, yet quite simple to accomplish, and how all 7 million St. Petersburg residents fit neatly on the island, "tightly, but without fuss".

New Everyday Reality in Russian Cities

Users have created sharp-witted reviews alongside AI-generated images of imagined life on the island, pictures of beach parties, campfires, and sunset views of the lighthouse. One user wrote: "The lighthouse at Karezhskiy is a five-star introvert hotel in the middle of Lake Ladoga. The sound of waves instead of work call notifications."

The situation reflects broader everyday reality in Russian cities, where signal jamming has become routine: residents cannot pay with bank cards, contact friends, or plan routes. St. Petersburg residents' sense of humour towards fake locations demonstrates how people adapt to restrictions, turning inconveniences into shared jokes.