Telegram is one of the last messaging apps in Russia that the state doesn’t control. Did the Kremlin just block it for good?
Telegram, one of Russia’s most widely used messaging apps, has been malfunctioning for the past two days. On Tuesday, Russia’s federal censorship agency confirmed it was behind the disruptions, saying the measures were meant to “protect” citizens. For many Russians, Telegram is one of the few major platforms they have access to that still operates outside state control. Along with the American messenger WhatsApp, Telegram has faced escalating “restrictions” over the past six months. Now, it appears the Kremlin may be moving toward blocking the app completely. There’s just one problem: Russian officials rely on it.
The business news outlet RBC was the first to report that Russian authorities had begun “partially restricting” Telegram. Three informed sources told the publication that the federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, was “slowing” the messenger.
Telegram is one of the few remaining messaging platforms available in Russia that operates outside direct state control. On February 10, Alexander Yushchenko, the deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, said lawmakers hadn’t formally discussed slowing Telegram. However, he acknowledged that Roskomnadzor could block the service if it finds that Telegram has violated Russian law.
Court records from Moscow show that Telegram has already been cited in eight misdemeanor cases — seven for refusing to remove prohibited content and one for failing to meet the legal requirements imposed on social-media platforms.
Roskomnadzor, in turn, accused Telegram of failing to comply with Russian legislation and of doing too little to combat fraud. The agency said it would “continue restricting” the service, according to the Russian business newspaper Kommersant, though it did not specify which measures are currently in effect or when they were introduced.
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A long time coming
Telegram has been experiencing disruptions in Russia for a second consecutive day, according to outage trackers Downdetector and Sboy.rf. Complaints spiked on the morning of February 9, with users reporting that media files were failing to load and, in some cases, that messages were neither sending nor downloading.
A source in the telecommunications industry told Forbes Russia that Telegram’s traffic in Russia has indeed declined over the past two days. According to this source, the slowdown initially affected certain regional networks before reaching Moscow and St. Petersburg on February 10.
A poll conducted on Meduza’s Telegram channel found that at least 21 percent of respondents in Russia said they had encountered problems using Telegram, while 38 percent reported no change. Another 23 percent said they use a VPN and were unaffected by the new restrictions. More than 35,000 people responded to the poll. However, because it was conducted on Telegram itself, it couldn’t capture how many users are unable to access the service.
The latest measures follow a series of earlier restrictions on Telegram and WhatsApp. Over the past six months, Roskomnadzor has imposed limits on both messaging services at least three times. In August 2025, the regulator blocked audio and video calls on both platforms, citing efforts to combat phone scams. In late October, the platforms began working only intermittently — first in southern Russia, and then in other regions as well. At the time, Roskomnadzor said it had “partially restricted” Telegram and WhatsApp to “counter criminal activity.”
At the time, it was unclear what specific restrictions Roskomnadzor had put in place, how they worked, or whether the measures were intended to be temporary or permanent. Over time, complaints about disruptions to messaging apps in Russia simply decreased.
Then, in mid-January 2026, the television channel Moscow 24 reported that Telegram was being slowed, citing a source in the telecommunications industry. Two Russian lawmakers said the restrictions were linked to Telegram’s alleged violations of Russian law. Roskomnadzor initially denied that it was slowing the service, but on January 21 the agency effectively acknowledged the new restrictions, calling one lawmaker’s account of the situation “comprehensive.”
Sources cited by RBC did not say whether the measures introduced on February 10 differ from those imposed in October or January, or whether similar restrictions could be extended to other foreign messaging apps, including WhatsApp.
Telegram did not respond to a request for comment from Meduza by the time of publication. However, in a statement on his own channel, Telegram founder Pavel Durov accused the Russian authorities of trying to push citizens onto “a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship,” an apparent reference to the Kremlin-backed messaging service Max.
“Restricting citizens’ freedom is never the right answer,” Durov wrote. “Telegram stands for freedom of speech and privacy, no matter the pressure.”
To the Max
The Kremlin’s efforts to throttle independent messengers have been accompanied by the promotion of Max, an alternative messaging app developed by the state-controlled social media company VK. One of Telegram’s most popular features is its channels — a tool for broadcasting posts to large audiences of subscribers. Max introduced a channels feature in mid-September 2025, but the platform has struggled to attract the same number of users as its main rival. In January, Kommersant reported that the total number of channel subscribers on Max was dozens of times smaller than on Telegram.
Some Russian officials have acknowledged the problem. In December 2025, State Duma Information Policy Committee head Sergey Boyarsky said Telegram functions not just as a messenger but as a full-fledged social network, and argued that it would be a mistake to disconnect people from familiar sources of information. At the same time, he pointed to Max’s new channel feature, saying it was “too early” to expect a mass migration, but that it was growing.
Recent Telegram disruptions have coincided with renewed efforts to make Max more attractive. On February 10, the business newspaper Vedomosti reported that the app had expanded its features, allowing all users — not just approved bloggers — to create private channels and invite subscribers via links. Public channels, however, remain reserved for a privileged group and include an additional search feature.
According to Forbes Russia, Max also circulated guidance to media outlets following reports of new Telegram restrictions, encouraging channel administrators to remind audiences about their presence on Max and share links.
The end of Telegram in Russia?
Russian officials continue to publicly deny plans to fully ban Telegram or WhatsApp. Back in October, IT expert Mikhail Klimarev, director of the Internet Protection Society, said the authorities were likely to gradually tighten restrictions until the apps became effectively unusable — repeating the government’s approach to YouTube. At the time, Klimarev predicted Telegram could be blocked by late 2025 or early 2026.
In late January, federal lawmaker Mikhail Delyagin suggested that a full ban could be implemented closer to Russia’s parliamentary elections in September 2026. Sources close to the Putin administration told the independent outlet Verstka that any final decision would most likely be made after the State Duma vote scheduled for September 20.
Meduza previously reported that the Kremlin’s domestic policy team would prefer to keep Telegram functioning during the 2026 elections. The app hosts a dense network of political and media channels that officials and political strategists use to help shape public opinion. At the same time, political consultants working with the Kremlin were advised last fall to start looking for new communication tools to replace Telegram and WhatsApp. By early winter, however, those discussions had largely faded.
Asked about the current measures against Telegram, a source close to the Putin administration who works on elections told Meduza that decisions about blocking platforms are ultimately up to the security agencies. The Kremlin’s domestic policy bloc, he says, considers blocking Telegram a “net negative” because it would create “social tension” and dismantle established communication networks built through broadcast channels.
This source also confirmed that the domestic policy team would prefer to keep Telegram accessible, although he doubted that its head, Sergey Kiriyenko, would “pick a fight” with the security services over it.
Another source close to the Kremlin told Meduza that it’s too early to talk about a deliberate, full-scale effort to ban Telegram. Instead, he said, the authorities appear to be “testing much broader blocking mechanisms that could be applied to anything.” He added that “there’s a sense the Iranian experience with Internet shutdowns has inspired our security agencies.”
For now, the popularity of Telegram’s channels may well be the only thing still preventing the authorities from blocking the app entirely — not least because lawmakers, government officials, and pro-Kremlin propagandists continue to rely on them.
