Russia on Tuesday tightened its step-by-step throttling of the ubiquitous communication app Telegram, escalating a crackdown on what remains of the free Russian internet amid President Vladimir V. Putin’s war against Ukraine.
New disruptions to the app’s service in multiple regions of the country rattled many of the more than 100 million Russians who turn to Telegram each month as a source of news, commentary and entertainment, and as a tool to make calls and send messages.
The Russian communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said in a statement on Tuesday that it would continue to impose successive restrictions on Telegram until the app ceased violating Russian law. The agency has accused Telegram of failing to protect personal data, combat fraud and prevent its use by terrorists and criminals, according to the statement, which was released to the state news agency Tass.
The regulator’s actions come after Russia barred and impeded various messaging and social media platforms, and as it pushes its own state-controlled messaging app, MAX, as a safe alternative to competitors like Telegram and WhatsApp. The moves are broadly seen as an attempt to extend Kremlin control over what Russians are able to see, do and say online. Many analysts compared MAX to China’s WeChat, a state-controlled “super app” that dominates the Chinese internet.
Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, said in a statement posted Tuesday on Telegram, “Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship.”
Mr. Durov, who was born in Russia but lives in the United Arab Emirates, said that Iran had used the same strategy eight years ago, banning Telegram “on made-up pretexts” and trying to force people onto a state-run alternative, but ultimately failed as most Iranians continued to rely on Telegram.
“Restricting citizens’ freedom is never the right answer,” he added. “Telegram stands for freedom of speech and privacy, no matter the pressure.”
In an interview last fall with the podcaster Lex Fridman, Mr. Durov noted that Russians use Telegram not just for personal communication and business activities but also for independent sources of information.
While Moscow has banned the websites of news outlets like BBC News Russian, for example, Russians are still able to read the Telegram channels of those organizations, he noted.
Telegram plays an enormous role in Russia’s online life. According to the monitoring firm Mediascope, nearly three-quarters of the Russian population ages 13 and up visits the app at least once a month. More than half of those users visit the app once a day, and Russian users spend an average of 45 minutes daily on Telegram, Mediascope found.
The app has also functioned as one of the primary ways that Russians learn about what is happening on the battlefield in Ukraine. A bevy of Russian military bloggers push out constant updates, often but not always aligned with the aims of the state.
Andrei V. Gurulyov, a prominent member of Russia’s Parliament and a former high-ranking army officer, told Russian media on Tuesday that information security was one of the key struggles between Russia and NATO countries.
“Therefore, we probably can’t act differently here,” Mr. Gurulyov said. “I understand that this is inconvenient for many, including me, because I have my own Telegram channel that people read.”
Mr. Gurulyov’s Telegram channel has more than 62,000 followers. He said that nevertheless the move was dictated by the times, and he would move his commentary to the state-controlled messenger MAX, where he has more than 4,000 followers.
The Russian authorities began blocking voice calls on Telegram and WhatsApp last summer, as Moscow prepared to push Russians to start using MAX. The new restrictions on Telegram introduced on Tuesday extended beyond voice calls to messages and other media, prompting outrage from many Russians, some of whom reported not being able to load chats, send messages or view videos on the app. The Russian authorities previously blocked Telegram from 2018 to 2020, citing concerns about extremist content.
The latest escalation follows a crackdown on YouTube last year, as well as bans on Facebook and Instagram put in place at the outset of the war, as Moscow pursues what Mr. Putin describes as “technological sovereignty.”
After a year of sharply slowing internet connections for YouTube videos, the Russian authorities appeared to step up their campaign against the U.S. video streaming site this week. YouTube.com had been removed from the national domain name system, according to reports. This means that most Russians typing in the address without using workaround technology will not be able to reach the site.
Many Russians have turned to virtual private networks, or VPNs, to bypass the internet restrictions and continue using the throttled or blocked apps. Though VPN usage remains legal in Russia, the authorities have made it more difficult find the workaround tools, and they usually require that users pay a fee. A third of Russian respondents told the Levada Center, an independent pollster, last spring that they use a VPN.
The additional restrictions on Telegram are the latest in a long line of disruptions that Russian internet and mobile phone users have faced since Mr. Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago.
Beyond interruptions to Telegram, WhatsApp and YouTube, Russians have been contending with sporadic mobile internet blackouts — an effort to stymie attacks by Ukrainian drones that use mobile networks for navigation.
Thousands of Russians flocked to Roskomnadzor’s page on the state-controlled social media network VK on Tuesday to register their discontent with the new restrictions on Telegram.
“Will this ever end???” a user named Andrey wrote. “Every day, access to something new disappears. Learn to block specific sites! Apparently, the internet is already easier to use in Iran than it is here.”
Another commenter, named Kostya, wrote that he would need to go to the closet to retrieve his shortwave radio, which is how many Russians listened to the BBC and Voice of America during the Soviet era, despite the state’s prohibition and jamming of the stations.
“When you block the entire internet, announce the date so we’ll be prepared,” a user named Yaroslav asked the Russian regulator. Another user responded, “I think everything will be decided this year.”
VK deleted the posts almost as soon as they appeared.
Alina Lobzina contributed reporting.
Paul Sonne is an international correspondent, focusing on Russia and the varied impacts of President Vladimir V. Putin’s domestic and foreign policies, with a focus on the war against Ukraine.
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