Russia to blocks WhatsApp, forcing users to switch to Telegram or Max

Meta’s popular messenger WhatsApp will be completely blocked in Russia this year, a high-ranking member of its legislature reveled.

The move makes sense, according to the lawmaker, as the Russian Federation prepares to hold parliamentary elections, he noted.

Meanwhile, Moscow has been actively promoting the state-approved messaging app called Max while Telegram remains a preferred alternative.

Russia to fully block WhatsApp ahead of parliamentary vote

WhatsApp will “finally be blocked” in 2026, official Russian media reported this week, quoting a representative of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament.

The decision is justified given the upcoming elections, stressed Andrey Svintsov, deputy chairman of the chamber’s Committee for Information Policy, IT and Communications.

Speaking to the TASS news agency on Thursday, the lawmaker elaborated:

Roskomnadzor (RKN) is the short title of the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media – Russia’s telecom watchdog.

Svintsov explained the ban is coming because WhatsApp is owned by Meta, the U.S.-based tech giant behind Facebook, which has been labelled an “extremist company” in Russia.

The tough measures against the messaging platform, especially before the elections to be held by September, are “absolutely justified,” the Russian deputy emphasized.

He also noted that the majority of his friends and acquaintances have already abandoned WhatsApp and switched to either Telegram, its most popular alternative, or the “national messenger” Max.

In August 2025, Roskomnadzor announced it’s partially limiting calls via both Telegram and WhatsApp in Russia, stating they had become the voice services most popular with fraudsters.

RKN also alleged that the two messengers were being often used to recruit Russian citizens for sabotage and terrorist activities.

Representatives of the regulatory body remarked they were specifically targeting WhatsApp because it breaks Russian laws.

Russia pushing its Max messenger at the expense of competitors

Russian officials have been actively promoting the domestic government-supported replacement for WhatsApp and Telegram, the Max messenger.

The Russian application, which was first released as a beta version in March of last year, reached 45 million users by October, as reported by Cryptopolitan.

Earlier, local media revealed that major smartphone makers from China and South Korea had agreed to pre-install it on all devises sold in the country, as required by the Russian authorities. Critics have raised concerns that Moscow may use Max as a surveillance tool.

The app is based on the Max platform developed by VK, formerly known as Vkontakte. The latter is the leading social media network in Russia and the Russian-speaking segment of the market in the wider region.

Vkontakte was co-founded by Telegram’s owner Pavel Durov almost two decades ago. The Russian-born entrepreneur, who was once VK’s chief executive, sold his stake, resigned and left Russia in 2014, claiming the company was being taken over by people close to President Putin.

While at the helm of the networking service, he rejected Moscow’s requests to censor accounts of both Ukrainian and Russian anti-government protestors.

Later, he turned down requests by the FSB to provide access to the encrypted correspondence between Telegram users of interest for Russia’s powerful security service.

In July 2025, Durov denied reports Telegram was opening an office in Russia after describing an earlier news that the messenger was leaving the Russian market as a “targeted campaign to discredit Telegram.”

In July, a top representative of the Kremlin administration insisted that the Russian government was not planning to ban foreign messaging services indiscriminately, providing they complied with Russian legal requirements.

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