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This was Russia today Thursday, February 26, 2026

Source: Meduza

Howdy, folks. In today’s issue, I cover Vladislav Gorin’s interview with journalist Maria Kolomychenko about how Russia’s crackdown on Telegram has grown into something beyond ordinary Internet censorship. I also look at a recent interview with Vladimir Potanin, in which the billionaire describes his post-2022 Russian spending spree. Yours, Kevin.

Russia’s push to ban Telegram could turn millions of users into criminals overnight

For the past several months, Russian authorities have accelerated their crackdown on Telegram, throttling the platform’s multimedia content and pressuring users to migrate to a new state-sponsored alternative. This week, the Federal Security Service leaked records about criminal charges against Telegram founder Pavel Durov to Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia’s newspaper of record) and the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda — a choice of outlets that raised eyebrows. RBC, citing unnamed Kremlin sources, reported Thursday that the government has decided to block Telegram entirely starting in early April. The independent outlet The Bell has been at the forefront of covering Telegram’s troubles in Russia; its special correspondent, Maria Kolomychenko, recently spoke with Meduza journalist Vladislav Gorin.

VPN? NBD: In their conversation, Kolomychenko detailed the technical realities of Russia’s current campaign against the app. Users have noticed severe delays in loading media files, but the more alarming development is that this throttling persists even when users connect through a virtual private network (VPN). This suggests that Roskomnadzor — Russia’s federal Internet regulator — has learned to identify and disrupt Telegram traffic even when it is masked by a VPN, using a technique that examines data packets as they travel across the network.

Old farts with big ideas: Impressive as that capability sounds, Kolomychenko noted that Roskomnadzor engineers privately dread a sweeping mandate to block Telegram entirely. Their deep packet inspection equipment works by processing every user request against massive access-control lists. Adding Telegram’s vast infrastructure to these lists could overload the entire system. The push for a total ban, Kolomychenko said, appears to come from higher up in Russia’s chain of command, specifically from aging hardliners on the Security Council who do not use the Internet and view it purely as a threat. These officials have been encouraged by the state’s recent successes in throttling Western platforms and by the rollout of “Max,” a domestic messenger built by the state-friendly tech giant VK.

Your money or your life: To push users off Telegram, lawmakers have explored designating the platform as an “extremist” organization or a terrorist accomplice. That designation would be catastrophic for Telegram’s Russian users. Unlike Instagram and Facebook, Telegram has a deeply integrated financial infrastructure. Millions of Russians use Telegram Wallet to hold cryptocurrency or pay for Telegram Premium. Under Russian law, sending money to an “extremist” entity constitutes financing extremism — a felony offense. Even the head of Roskomnadzor, who subscribes to Premium, would technically be guilty of financing an extremist group.

Your move, Pavel: What Durov does next is anyone’s guess. Kolomychenko expressed deep skepticism about Durov’s long-standing public claim that he never cooperates with state intelligence agencies. She pointed to Russia’s brief ban on Telegram in 2018, which she said was driven primarily by the security services’ fear of Durov’s planned cryptocurrency, TON. Once the project stalled, the ban was lifted, and Telegram quickly became a favored tool of the Russian government, suggesting a quiet compromise between Durov and the Kremlin.

Durov now faces mounting pressure in democratic and authoritarian countries alike and, by Kolomychenko’s account, appears exhausted. Kolomychenko argued that Durov’s core business model — offering a fully anonymous messenger that refuses to cooperate with state security services — is no longer sustainable in today’s Internet environment. Whether he will develop new workarounds to stay accessible in Russia or simply concede the market is an open question.

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‘My time to shine’: How one of Russia’s richest men turned Western sanctions into a shopping spree

After Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, billionaire Vladimir Potanin sharply expanded his Russian holdings. In a February 26 interview with Forbes Russia, he described how Western sanctions reshaped his investment strategy and drove the acquisitions of Tinkoff Bank and Rosbank, as well as a major stake in Yandex.

The writing on the wall: Potanin denied having advance knowledge of the February 2022 invasion, arguing that the freezing of Russian Central Bank reserves showed even top officials were caught off guard. Even so, he said he anticipated that sanctions would eventually reach him. Realizing this, he began repatriating his Western holdings — representing 5 to 10 percent of his business funds, or several hundred million dollars — and redeploying the capital inside Russia. Potanin said he was merely seizing opportunities as they arose

Rapid banking acquisitions: Potanin moved quickly, acquiring both Rosbank and Tinkoff. He told Forbes that the Rosbank acquisition began with a frantic phone call. The bank’s president, Potanin said, had grown fed up with the backlash over doing business in the “wrong country” and pleaded for a buyout. Around the same time, he acquired Oleg Tinkov’s stake in Tinkoff Bank, though Potanin claimed he was barely involved. His team presented him with a deal already negotiated: it closed in three or four days for roughly $400 million, which included Tinkov’s yacht, La Datcha. Potanin said he merely had a video call with Tinkov to express his respect.

In May 2022, Tinkov offered a starkly different characterization of the sale, telling The New York Times that the Russian government forced him to sell his stake “for kopecks” in retaliation for his opposition to the war in Ukraine.

Securing a stake in Yandex: Potanin’s pursuit of Yandex was far more complex. He expressed early interest in buying a major stake after the company’s founders — including Arkady Volozh, who had condemned the war as “barbaric” and relocated abroad — moved to sell their holdings. While Potanin’s initial bid was derailed when Western stakeholders refused his money due to sanctions, his “time to shine,” as he put it, arrived when early buyers backed out to avoid high-interest debt. Potanin ultimately secured roughly 10 percent of the company, acquiring 9.95 percent from former Gazprom executive Alexander Ryazanov in 2025. Potanin dismissed rumors of Kremlin orchestration, framing Alexey Kudrin — who served as Russia’s finance minister for more than a decade before joining Yandex as a corporate development advisor — solely as a moderator. Potanin insisted that the final ownership structure reflected the highest bidders.

What’s next: Potanin outlined three investment priorities: filling gaps left by Western firms that have exited Russia, investing in sectors where Russia can compete (such as artificial intelligence and private space exploration, he argued), and pursuing projects that can generate returns in foreign markets. He acknowledged that capital-heavy projects aimed at economic self-sufficiency are often impractical within Russia’s domestic market alone.

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