Russian authorities are denying media reports of plans to fully block Telegram from 1 April, noting that no decisions have been made on the matter yet. For many Russians, this sounds like an indirect confirmation of further digital isolation and stricter Internet censorship.
Should Russians expect a total blocking of Telegram, and if so, when?
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The Kremlin-affiliated media outlets and Telegram channels reported over the past few days that the messenger will be fully shut down, possibly as soon as 1 April.
According to the reports, Telegram will be fully blocked everywhere across the country and “the application will not be downloaded either through mobile networks or fixed Internet systems".
Such prospects have triggered the most serious wave of criticism from Kremlin supporters against the authorities in four years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
'Fake, nonsense' and 'unverified information'
Russia’s State Duma, which is fully aligned with the Kremlin, described the reports as “fake” and "rubbish", also saying that the warnings are “premature”.
But the Duma officials did not directly refute the claims, while Telegram users have already been experiencing significant slowdowns in the popular messenger app since last summer.
On 10 February, Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor announced another round of restrictions, explaining the measures by saying that Telegram was violating federal law, publishing illegal content and opening platforms to Western intelligence services.
At the same time, Russian authorities warned that the restrictions would remain in place if Telegram did not place servers in the country and did not “fulfill Russian legislation".
Sergei Boyarsky, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, claimed that Telegram's management is in contact with Roskomnadzor, but observers believe that a deal is impossible.
Sources close to Telegram founder Pavel Durov said the complete blocking of Telegram was inevitable.
In 2015, one year after Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine, Moscow introduced the Data Localisation Law, which requires all companies, including foreign ones, to store and process the personal data of Russian users on servers physically located within Russia.
After Moscow launched its all-out war on Ukraine in early 2022, the Kremlin toughened its regulations, and from 1 January 2026, all internet services are required to store user messages for three years and hand them over to security agencies on request.
The regulation applies to all messages, including audio, video, text and metadata, even if the users have deleted them.
Blocking Telegram is widely seen as a political issue, and if Durov made concessions to the Kremlin, it would cause him significant reputational damage.
Russia-born Telegram founder has a controversial reputation regarding his cooperation with the Kremlin.
He left Russia for Dubai in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform and hand over user data. But since then there have been signs of him possibly reconciling with the Kremlin.
A journalistic investigation revealed that Durov visited Russia over 50 times between 2015 and 2021.
Earlier, the Telegram founder criticised the restrictions on its operations in Russia, saying that the lack of competition reduces the security of communication.
According to Durov, the Russian authorities are trying to force the country's residents to "switch to a state-controlled application created for surveillance and political censorship" by blocking Telegram.
Durov refers to the Kremlin-promoted "national" messenger Max, which Russian President Vladimir Putin personally demanded to be introduced everywhere in the interests of Russia's _"_digital sovereignty".
Russian officials argue that imposing Max on citizens will not only provide users with a domestically made communication tool but also give them access to state services.
But according to the Russian messenger's privacy policy, the service can transfer user data to any authority upon request, as well as collect information about visited web pages.
According to an investigation by journalist Andrei Zakharov, Max is a personal asset of the Russian president's family.
A gut punch to their own?
Kremlin-affiliated warbloggers, Russian army representatives and major media figures have stepped in to defend Telegram.
Vladimir Solovyov, one of Russia's top propagandists, publicly complained about the declining number of his own subscribers and the shrinking audience reach because of limitations on Telegram, and slammed the authorities' failure to offer it a full-fledged alternative.
"Very much of what is happening now in terms of communication on the frontline is only via Telegram," he said. Solovyov claims he regularly travels to the frontlines of Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine to visit Moscow troops.
Yekaterina Mizulina, director of the pro-Kremlin “Safe Internet League”, which helps the Russian regime strengthen censorship, is also against slowing down Telegram.
She called the possible blocking of the messenger a "mistake" as, in her opinion, it would lead to the loss of a tool for promoting pro-Russian ideas.
Telegram to remain accessible in the warzone
The biggest outrage was voiced in near-army circles and the pro-war blogosphere. DW reports, citing its interlocutors, that “in fact, Telegram has become the main source of communication during Russia's full-scale invasion against Ukraine. Closed chat rooms are being created inside the messenger for combat missions_."_
The situation is also complicated by the fact that since the beginning of February, the Russian army has lost the ability to use Starlink satellite internet terminals, which immediately caused a breakdown in the communications system.
The Russian military calls the possible loss of Telegram under these conditions a "headache".
The Russian military channels claim that _“_The primary problem is the loss of interaction between units: the established communication channels will collapse".
Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev said that the authorities will not yet block the messenger on the frontline in Ukraine.
At the same time, he expressed hope that _"_in some time our military will be able to reorganise and switch to Russian services".
His comments came one day after the State Duma approved amendments obliging mobile operators to disconnect communications at the FSB's request, freeing them in such cases from liability to subscribers and users.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has gradually blocked Facebook and Instagram in March 2022, Signal around August 2024, partially restricted Telegram and WhatsApp by August 2025, then Snapchat and FaceTime in December 2025, and in February 2026, WhatsApp was completely blocked.
All these steps apparently did not provoke the same reaction among the population as the current all-out attack on Telegram, which, according to Mediascope, is used by more than 90 million of the country's residents every month.
Blocked services can be accessed with a VPN, and this option is likely to remain in place for Durov's messenger.
According to March 2025 data from the Levada Centre, a non-governmental sociological group, 36% of Russians regularly or occasionally use VPNs, up from 25% a year earlier.