Russia intensifies Telegram block as outages hit 95%

Russia’s telecom regulator Roskomnadzor escalated efforts to block Telegram after weeks of throttling and traffic interruptions. Independent network-monitoring platforms registered access anomalies at about 95% nationwide on April 10, up from roughly 79% the previous day. Reports of outages rose sharply overnight, with one popular outage tracker logging more than 5,000 complaints in 24 hours. Many reports originated in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Roskomnadzor began slowing Telegram traffic in February, citing the app’s refusal to remove content Moscow deems prohibited. The regulator stepped up traffic interruptions in late March ahead of a reported April 1 compliance deadline, with measures tending to intensify toward the end of the workweek.

Monitoring services showed other encrypted messaging apps had anomaly rates near 89% the same morning. Russian authorities had previously blocked Signal, Discord and Viber by the end of 2024 and effectively limited WhatsApp after deleting its domain in February. Voice calls on some platforms were curtailed in August 2025; officials attributed those limits to misuse by fraudsters, extremists and cybercriminals. Telegram and WhatsApp each had tens of millions of users in Russia before the recent restrictions.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested the clampdown could be linked to preparations for “unpopular decisions.” He added: “Perhaps this is the end of the war in one format or another. Or, conversely, an escalation.”

Telegram founder Pavel Durov urged “digital resistance,” saying about 65 million Russians continue to use the app and are bypassing the blockade with virtual private networks. Russian authorities have reported disrupting attempts to organize protests in several regions in defense of the messenger.

Telegram remains widely used across the conflict, including by soldiers on both sides. Moscow and Kyiv agreed to a truce for Orthodox Easter this weekend. Roskomnadzor describes the measures as enforcement of content rules, while the platform and independent observers characterize them as broad throttling and intermittent blocking of traffic. Monitoring services will continue to track access as the situation develops.