What is happening
Since the weekend of March 14-15, Telegram messenger has practically stopped working in Russia, both in the mobile application and the desktop version. Users are complaining that they are unable to open Telegram, view messages, or upload photos and videos. Experts interviewed by Kommersant He thinksThe blocking of the messenger (which was rumored to be expected as of April 1) has already begun.
On the websites Downdetector and Sboy.rf, the number of complaints about Telegram began to increase over the weekend. Users wrote that the messenger was not working “in any way,” and complaints came from different regions, including Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Moscow region. According to the website “sboy.rf”, reported by the newspaper “Kommersant”, on Saturday, March 14, nearly six thousand people complained about incorrect operation of the messenger, and on Sunday even more – 12 thousand times.
Technology expert and author of “The Durov Code” Vladislav Voytenko noted that the messenger does not actually work when calling from home providers, and “you can forget about Telegram working over the mobile Internet.” He points out that if only sites from the “whitelist” are active in a particular city, “most VPN services will not help you log in to Telegram.” The head of the Association of Telecom Operators of MAKATEL, Alexei Amelkin, in a conversation with Kommersant noted that there had been a “slowdown” for a long time, but the day before there were complaints that the desktop version of the messenger had stopped working.
At the same time, Moscow residents have been complaining for more than a week about a general Internet outage. Problems arise in different areas – in some places there was no connection at all, including mobile phone. At the same time, users note that mobile Internet works partially in some areas: only sites from . The same picture was observed in the metro when connected to the city Wi-Fi network – that is, it was not possible to log in through it, for example, to Telegram (it was not included in the “white list”). A source at RBC said that interruptions in the operation of mobile Internet in Moscow are connected precisely with the fact that the authorities are testing the “white list.”
Telegram has been down for a long time
Users in different regions of Russia have been complaining about malfunctions of the messenger for a long time, and calls in it (as well as in WhatsApp) have been limited since the summer of 2025. On February 10, 2026, RBC reported, citing sources, that the authorities decided to start “slowing down” Telegram. Roskomnadzor soon spoke too – the ministry said it would continue to impose consistent restrictions on Telegram in order to convince the messenger to “comply with Russian legislation” and “ensure the protection of citizens.”
Roskomnadzor’s claims were that the messenger does not fight fraudsters and does not comply with Russian legislation. The agency asked Telegram to locate servers in Russia, ensure the security of personal data and protect citizens from fraud, as well as create conditions to suppress extremism and terrorism.
Two weeks later, rumors emerged that the messenger had been banned. At the end of February, RBC (then The Bell), citing sources, reported that Russian authorities planned to finally ban Telegram by the beginning of April. Shortly before that, the “Baza” channel on Telegram, which is close to the security forces, wrote about the same matter (on the same date). Speaking about the reasons for blocking the Messenger, RBC sources indicated that “recently, cases of recruiting people, including minors, to commit illegal acts have become more frequent.” Roskomnadzor said it had “nothing to add to the previously published information.”
At the same time, two almost identical articles appeared in the newspapers Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Komsomolskaya Pravda on February 24, where they reported that the actions of Telegram founder Pavel Durov were being investigated as part of a criminal case under the article “Promotion of terrorist activities.” The publications did not contain links or confirmations, but indicated in particular that as a result of terrorist attacks committed using a telegram, Daria Dugina and the “military correspondent” Vladlen Tatarsky were killed.
Later, Durov himself stated that a criminal case had been opened against him in Russia. “Every day, the authorities come up with new excuses to restrict Russians’ access to Telegram, seeking to suppress the rights to privacy and freedom of expression,” he wrote.
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A separate issue was the work of Telegram at the forefront. In mid-February, Minister of Digital Development of the Russian Federation Maksut Shadayev to talkThe authorities do not plan to limit the work of the messenger for the Russian army, which uses it to coordinate its actions. Many Z channels and “military correspondents” strongly criticized the decision to ban Telegram.
At the beginning of March, Vladimir Putin also spoke about the telegram. At a meeting in the Kremlin before March 8, Communications Battalion Commander Irina Godunova spoke with the president. In response to Putin’s question, how does Godunova assess the current situation, when “Starlink has been turned off for us,” she said: “Work is being done in this direction… Of course, now the question of blocking Telegram has been raised, and this is some kind of hostile communications. Maybe we need to develop something of our own, improve it, adjust Max accordingly, and everything will be fine up front.”
Putin supported this conversation with the following question: “Do you also agree with the opinion that the use of communications systems that we do not have poses a danger to individuals?” To this Godunova answered: “Yes.”
What do the authorities say?
In the second week of March, when users in Russia began to increasingly complain about failures in the work of Telegram, Duma deputies, as well as representatives of the Kremlin, made a number of statements about the prospects of the messenger.
Andrei Svintsov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, said Telegram “would also be stupid over a VPN.” “If anyone thinks that everyone will just download a VPN and continue using the messenger, then I hasten to upset you. Nothing will work,” he said.
Press Secretary of Russian President Dmitry Peskov, to whom journalists asked questions about the possible blocking of Telegram, said that to avoid this, the messenger must “comply with the provisions of the legislation of the Russian Federation”, as well as “be in flexible contact with our authorities” and “find an option to solve the problems.”
Meanwhile, at the conference “Modern Media: Techniques, Meanings and Functions” held at the Higher School of Economics on March 11, Peskov complained that Russia was “rapidly losing the tools for propaganda work abroad.”
“We are dealing with hostile social networks, which are at the top of competition in the CIS, all over the world. We are not working in these environments and we need to figure out how we will continue to do this. We are not working with Telegram. Where can we then convey meaning? And we have to figure this out,” Peskov said.