The founder of the Telegram messenger, Pavel Durov, said that the blocking of the messenger in Russia resembles attempts to block it previously launched by the Iranian authorities.
The founder of the Telegram messenger, Pavel Durov, said that the blocking of the messenger in Russia resembles attempts to block it previously launched by the Iranian authorities.
«Telegram was banned in Russia — but 65 million Russians still use it every day via VPN, and over 50 million send messages every day», Durov said.
According to him, the Russian government has been trying to ban VPNs for years, but «recent attempts to block them have caused a large-scale disruption in the banking system.» Yesterday, April 3, 2026, a large-scale disruption was indeed recorded in the work of Sberbank, VTB, and T-Bank’s programs and ATMs, due to which Russians could not make transfers and withdraw cash.
Later, Russian media reported that the telecom regulator Roskomnadzor began demanding that they remove news that a large-scale disruption in the work of major banks was linked to the blocking of RKN. Numerous Russian Telegram channels allegedly heeded this demand.
Pavel Durov also noted that a few years ago, Iran also tried to block Telegram, but the result was similar to Russia’s.
«The government was hoping for mass use of its messengers with a tracking function, but instead got mass use of VPNs. Now the 50 million members of the Digital Resistance in Iran have been joined by over 50 million more in Russia. Welcome to the Digital Resistance, my Russian brothers and sisters,» said the Telegram founder.
He believes that the entire Russian «nation is now mobilizing to circumvent these absurd restrictions.» Durov added that people are creating VPN servers, and Telegram developers continue to adapt to the restrictions and make the messenger’s traffic less vulnerable to blocking.
At the end of February, it became known that Russia was investigating the case of Telegram founder Pavel Durov as part of criminal proceedings for «facilitating terrorist activities.»
In March, reports emerged that Moscow had been experiencing mobile internet and communication problems for a week. This has led to a sharp increase in demand for network-independent communication and navigation devices — pagers, landline phones, walkie-talkies, and paper maps.
Later, Russians began to complain en masse that the Telegram app would not open, photos and videos would not load, and messages would not be sent. The largest number of complaints came from Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Sources in the Russian version of Forbes reported that the Russian telecom regulator Roskomnadzor is facing difficulties in restricting websites. The RKN equipment lacks bandwidth, probably due to the blocking of Telegram.
