On March 16, 2026, Kommersant FM radio station, citing IT experts, announced the start of a complete ban of Telegram in Russia. This conclusion was made based on the sharply increasing number of complaints about the work of the messenger. Earlier, sources from RBC and The Bell reported that the messenger will be banned on April 1. We tell you how users react to new problems in their work.
Last week, Telegram saw a global outage. On March 12, complaints about the work of the messenger began to arrive not only from Russia, but also from the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Turkey, Belarus and Ukraine. The service was fully restored after a few hours, and at the time of publishing this text there were problems accessing it Global level no.
But in Russia, Telegram continued to operate unstable throughout the weekend. According to the site’s schedule “failure.rf”The peak of the problems occurred on Sunday, March 15. Then the number of complaints approached 13 thousand. Although at the beginning of the week only about 100 users reported access issues per day.
March 16 radio station “Kommersant FM” I mentionedThat the ban of Telegram in Russia (which was supposed to happen on April 1) has already begun. This conclusion was made based on the opinion of two experts – the author of the publication “Code Durov” Vladislav Voytenko and the head of the Association of Telecommunications Operators Alexei Amelkin.
The two experts confirmed that widespread problems had been observed since at least Sunday. They did not provide an estimate of the number of users affected by the new flaw. Here’s how Voytenko commented on the situation: “Over the past 24 hours, Telegram from home providers has not really worked, if we talk about connections from Russian IP addresses. <…> “You can forget about doing Telegram online via mobile phone.”
Users also jokingly suggest that Telegram was accidentally restricted, linking this to the recent investigation into a top-secret unit of the Russian special services.
In the comments on the site Downdetector Users confirm that the issue affects both the mobile and desktop apps, as well as the web version of the messenger. Some of them complain that Telegram does not work with VPN:
- It does not work on the computer at all. Somehow messages are uploaded to the phone, but the photos and videos are a complete nightmare… Krasnodar.
- Since yesterday, Telegram has not worked at all. VPN, proxy, etc. are not working. Just download, update and endless connection.
Roskomnadzor has not yet commented on the latest flaw in the cable. Although in February, representatives of the administration stated that they would continue to impose consistent restrictions on the messenger in order to “comply with Russian legislation.”
At the same time, the users themselves have no doubt that the failure is connected precisely with the actions of Roskomnadzor, and He writes Angry comments (many of which have already been deleted) in the official RKN group on VKontakte. People who leave comments on Downdetector agree with them:
- Roskomnadzor, you have removed from us the last vestiges of freedom.
- Let’s throw chicken eggs at the RKN… What’s the point of being afraid and tolerating them?
It is very difficult to assess the scale of failure at the present time. Many users write that they do not experience any problems with Telegram. Their messenger continues to work with and without a VPN.
Some users have noticed that with the new wave of bans, there is no longer any sense in disabling block bypass tools.
President Mikhail Klimarev claims in his Telegram channel “ZaTelecom” that the availability of the messenger over the last two days He falls It reaches about 80%. However, there is no talk of a complete ban yet.
Bell edition Presumablyuntil the RKN began to completely ban the telegram. According to journalists, these are only the latest restrictive measures. “Roskomnadzor, in the case of popular services, often increases the ban in stages,” the publication notes.
Former Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation on Internet Development German Klimenko (who in 2015 called for banning the messenger) in a comment to the Parliamentary Gazette SuggestedThat Roskomnadzor does not have the task of completely breaking the telegram. In his opinion, it would be enough for the department if the majority of users refused to use it. Klimenko explained that the messenger is available to some users and not to others:
There are a lot of telecom operators in Russia, and each of them has its own ways of accessing the network and transmitting traffic, so there is simply no single button that you can press and block telegrams everywhere. Most likely, the errors in the blocking mechanisms are now being debugged.
Against the background of increased blocking of Telegram, as often happens, there were also disruptions in the operation of Russian platforms. On March 16, Yandex services (including the company-owned film portal Kinopoisk) and delivery service SDEK experienced problems. He writes “Vedomosti”. Residents of St. Petersburg too He complained Regarding the inaccessibility of the city health portal “Górsdrav”.
Also crashes Observed In the work of the national messenger Max, which the Russian authorities are positioning as a complete alternative to Telegram. Moreover, this is happening at a time when some users are already starting to adapt to the new reality.
Read what you want, not the authorities. For this Download the Jellyfish application — We write about the most important events in Russia and the world. Our app bypasses blocks and works without a VPN – it’s free and secure. In addition to news, we have podcasts, books and even games. And there is also a magical link – http://bit.ly/meduzamirror – With it, “Medusa” will be opened anywhere and from anyone, save it just in case and send it to your friends. Let’s keep in touch!