Russia was expected to block Telegram in April. It appears to have done it two weeks early.
For weeks, Russians have been bracing for a nationwide block of Telegram, the country’s most widely used messaging app, expected in early April. Reports of such plans first surfaced in late February, when RBC cited sources close to the Kremlin following a series of disruptions earlier that month. Now, however, it appears the authorities have moved ahead of schedule. Over the weekend of March 14–15, users in multiple regions reported major outages, with many unable to use the messenger at all. Here’s what we know so far.
Two weeks early
Telegram has been largely inaccessible across Russia since the weekend. Both the mobile and desktop versions are affected, with users reporting they can’t open the app, read messages, or load photos and videos. Experts interviewed by the newspaper Kommersant believe a government-imposed block, previously rumored to be coming on April 1, may have already begun.
Data from Downdetector and the Russian outage-tracking site Sboi.rf show complaints surging since Saturday. Outages were reported across multiple regions, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. Nearly 6,000 complaints were logged on Saturday alone; by Sunday, that number had doubled to 12,000.
Tech expert Vladislav Voytenko, who writes for the outlet Kod Durova, said the app had effectively stopped working over home internet connections — and that “you can forget about Telegram over mobile Internet.” In cities where only “whitelisted” websites are accessible, he added, most VPN services won’t help. Alexey Amelkin, president of the Makatel Cable Television Operators’ Association, told Kommersant that slowdowns had been ongoing for some time, but complaints about the desktop version failing outright were newer.
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Moscow residents have also spent more than a week reporting broader Internet disruptions. In some districts, connectivity dropped out entirely — including mobile service. Elsewhere, mobile Internet worked only partially, limited to whitelisted sites. The same pattern emerged on public Wi-Fi in the metro: Telegram, which is not on the whitelist, was inaccessible. A source cited by RBC linked the disruptions to authorities testing a whitelist system.
Months of glitches
The outages didn’t come out of nowhere. Calls in Telegram — and in WhatsApp — have been restricted since summer 2025. On February 10, 2026, RBC reported that Russian authorities had decided to begin throttling Telegram. Shortly after, Roskomnadzor confirmed it would continue imposing “gradual restrictions” to force the platform to comply with Russian law and “protect citizens.”
The regulator’s grievances include Telegram’s alleged failure to combat fraud and comply with local regulations. It has demanded the company host servers in Russia, ensure personal data security, and build mechanisms to counter extremism and terrorism.
Rumors of a full block began circulating two weeks later. In late February, RBC — and later The Bell — reported that authorities planned to block Telegram completely by early April. The pro-security-services Telegram channel Baza published similar claims around the same time. Sources told RBC the move was tied to a reported increase in recruitment via the app — including of minors — for illegal activities. Roskomnadzor said it had “nothing to add” to its earlier statements.
On February 24, Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Komsomolskaya Pravda published nearly identical articles claiming that Telegram founder Pavel Durov was under criminal investigation in Russia for “aiding terrorist activity.” The reports offered no evidence, but alleged that the attacks that killed Darya Dugina and war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky were linked to the app.
Durov later confirmed that a criminal case had been opened against him in Russia. “Every day, the authorities come up with new pretexts to restrict Russians’ access to Telegram, seeking to suppress the right to privacy and freedom of speech,” he wrote.
Telegram’s role on the battlefield has added another dimension to the dispute. In mid-February, Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev said authorities did not plan to restrict the app for Russian troops, who use it to coordinate operations. The restrictions elsewhere have drawn sharp criticism from pro-war Telegram channels.
In early March, Vladimir Putin addressed the issue indirectly. At a Kremlin meeting ahead of International Women’s Day, communications unit commander Irina Godunova described Telegram as a “hostile” communications tool and called for domestic alternatives. Putin then asked whether reliance on foreign systems posed risks to military personnel, and Godunova said it did.
What officials have said
On Tuesday, the Kremlin declined to comment on the Telegram outages, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying only that he was unaware of any contact between the Russian authorities and the company.
Last week, before the full block appeared to have begun, State Duma deputy Andrey Svintsov warned that once Telegram was restricted, it would “lag even over VPN.” “If anyone thinks they’ll just download a VPN and keep using it, I’m afraid nothing will work,” he said.
Peskov said earlier that Telegram could avoid being blocked only if it complied with Russian law, maintained “flexible contact with authorities,” and “[found] a solution.” Yet at a conference at the Higher School of Economics on March 11, the press secretary sounded a different note, lamenting that Russia was “rapidly losing tools for propaganda work abroad.”
“We’re dealing with hostile social networks that dominate competition across the CIS and globally,” he said. “We don’t operate in these environments — so we need to figure out what we will do going forward. We don’t work with Telegram. So where do we communicate our messaging? That’s something we still have to solve.”
