In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) announced that “partially restricted” the operation of foreign messaging applications. According to officials, this is a reaction to fraud carried out via these messengers.
“In order to fight criminals, in accordance with the findings of law enforcement agencies, actions are being taken to partially restrict the functioning of foreign messaging applications,” Roskomnadzor said in a statement. The announcement does not clearly state whether these restrictions will be temporary or permanent, or what exactly a “partial” blockade means.
Russia blocks popular messengers. “Failures” are reported by residents of 34 regions
Journalists of the independent website Meduza, who follow the process of blocking foreign messengers, point out that WhatsApp and Telegram “failures” on Russian territory began on October 20. Users complained about slow services, problems sending and receiving text messages, and the inability to load images and videos. For some people, instant messaging did not start at all, even after activating the VPN service.
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What apps have been blocked in Russia?
How many regions of Russia were affected by problems with instant messaging?
What is the reason for blocking WhatsApp and Telegram?
Do Russian authorities plan to completely block these messengers?
The failures affected both mobile applications and the desktop version. Most complaints came from residents of southern regions of Russia, such as Krasnodar Krai and Rostov Oblast. Over the next two days, several major disruptions to international messaging apps occurred in these regions.
Specialists of the “Na Swiazi” project, which collects and verifies user complaints regarding interruptions in Internet access, determined that residents of 34 regions of Russia, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, lost access to these services in whole or in part. Journalists also confirm problems with the functioning of instant messengers. For example, iPhones.ru reported that its readers have been complaining about outages of the FaceTime app since October 18, and Forbes reporters confirmed that restrictions even affected the Russian messaging app Max, developed by VK.
“Fighting cheaters”
Restrictions on the functioning of WhatsApp and Telegram messengers have been present in Russia for over two months. In August 2025, Roskomnadzor blocked audio and video calls in these applications. The Russian authorities cited the fight against telephone scammers as the reason for such actions. Many experts already pointed out that the authorities' main goal was to force users to switch to the Russian Max messenger.
“The restrictions introduced have already led to an increase of approximately 10-20 percent in the use of voice calls among mobile operators and the transfer of traffic to other messengers, such as Max, and other services with the function of making calls,” said the head of the TelecomDaily agency, Denis Kuskov, in an interview for the “Vedomosti” daily in August 2025.
Russia facing a complete blockade?
Despite limiting connections on WhatsApp and Telegram, the Russian authorities have repeatedly declared that they do not plan to completely ban the use of these services in the country. — Currently, there is no question of completely blocking these messengers in Russia. I believe a total ban is unlikely in the future – said Andrei Svintsov, deputy chairman of the Information Policy Committee of the Russian State Duma on Wednesday.
However, commentators have no doubt that the Russian authorities will gradually block both WhatsApp and Telegram. Independent media predict that within the next two or three months, Roskomnadzor will begin to periodically restrict access to foreign messengers, thereby making their use more difficult. At the same time, authorities will crack down on VPN services to prevent users from bypassing the blocks.
