Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, once again drew attention to the slowdown of the service in Russia:
The Russian authorities are trying to restrict access to Telegram in order to force citizens to use a state-controlled application designed for surveillance and political censorship.
Iran, eight years ago, also attempted to implement a similar strategy by blocking Telegram under baseless pretexts, but failed to achieve its goal.
Despite the restrictions, many Iranians continue to use Telegram, circumventing censorship, and prefer this messenger over state-controlled alternatives.
Limiting citizens' rights is never the right solution. Telegram always supports freedom of speech and the protection of personal data, regardless of the pressure applied.
Iran, eight years ago, also attempted to implement a similar strategy by blocking Telegram under baseless pretexts, but failed to achieve its goal.
Despite the restrictions, many Iranians continue to use Telegram, circumventing censorship, and prefer this messenger over state-controlled alternatives.
Limiting citizens' rights is never the right solution. Telegram always supports freedom of speech and the protection of personal data, regardless of the pressure applied.
On February 10, 2025, Russian authorities began to impose restrictions on access to Telegram, which is one of the most popular messengers in the country. Roskomnadzor, the communications regulator, without disclosing details, announced its intention to "continue consistent restrictions to ensure compliance with Russian legislation and protect citizens." In recent days, users across Russia reported widespread service outages.
In August 2025, Roskomnadzor restricted the functionality of voice and video calls in messengers such as Telegram and WhatsApp, stating that these platforms were used for fraud and other criminal activities. In October, "partial restrictions" were introduced, and in December, the distribution of media files in WhatsApp was slowed down. A complete block affected several other messengers, including Signal in August 2024 and Viber in December 2024. Previously, in 2018, Telegram was temporarily blocked by court order due to the company's refusal to provide security agencies with encryption keys.
Recently, Russian authorities have been actively promoting the domestically developed messenger MAX.
