Politics Is the complete blockade of Telegram beginning in Russia?
There are increasing complaints in Russia about the almost complete blocking of the popular messenger service Telegram. Telegram is not accessible in either the app or the web version, users wrote on disruption websites.
16.03.2026, 16:34
SDA
There have been rumors for some time about a complete blocking of the messenger in Russia from 1 April. Audio and video calls on Telegram and WhatsApp have been blocked in Russia since last summer. The messenger services Signal and Viber are already blocked, and numerous other services and websites such as YouTube cannot be accessed without a VPN (virtual private network).
However, Russia is also increasingly taking action against VPN use. The deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Information Policy, Andrey Sintsov, recently said that intelligence services could restrict or block VPN traffic in the next three to six months. In fact, VPN traffic via mobile internet in Moscow is already massively restricted.
Authorities are pushing the new Russian messenger Max. Critics fear that users are being spied on. The restrictions on messengers are justified with the accusation that the companies are not complying with Russian laws.
