Russian authorities disrupt WhatsApp and Telegram service while promoting new Kremlin-backed “Max” app

On August 13, Roskomnadzor (Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media) announced measures to “partially restrict” calls made via Telegram and WhatsApp across the country. The agency said the objective was to combat fraudsters who use the messaging apps to extort money or to recruit Russians for “sabotage and terrorist activities.” Roskomnadzor stressed that the owners of the apps in question repeatedly ignored official requests to take countermeasures.

Notably, the call restrictions began several days before the official announcement was made.

On August 10, quasi-independent journalist Ksenia Sobchak reported that Russia’s “big four” mobile operators — MTS, Beeline, MegaFon, and Tele2 — had approached the government with a proposal to block voice calls on WhatsApp, Telegram, and other foreign messaging apps.

On August 12, Russian pro-government media outlet RBC cited a source at one of the telecom operators, who confirmed that a similar proposal had been made in May. There has been no official confirmation from the “big four” operators, nor from Rostelecom.

Starting the next day, users of WhatsApp and Telegram in various regions of Russia began experiencing disruptions to voice and video calls. The Russian Internet monitoring project “NA Svyazi” told The Insider that, based on support requests and publicly available data from August 11–12, the outage affected at least 27 regions of Russia. Moscow accounted for the largest share of complaints (51%), followed by St. Petersburg (10%), Krasnodar Krai (4%), and Chelyabinsk Region (4%).

Comments collected by the monitoring service Sboy.rf indicate that, despite the slowdown of voice and video traffic on WhatsApp and Telegram, other messaging apps that support audio and video calls still work properly. For example, similar to WhatsApp and Telegram, Imo.im also uses VoIP (WebRTC) traffic — and it continues to work as usual.

All of this points to selective blocking or the throttling of calls in specific apps. The traffic generated by text messages and media sharing differs from that of audio and video calls. Telecom operators — or upstream network nodes under the control of state authorities — can apply filters to this type of traffic, enabling selective slowdowns or instituting outright blocks. Users also report that the issue occurs only when using Russian mobile operators or ISPs, while calls work normally when using a proxy or VPN.

Thus, it is clear that certain protocols or connection ports are being blocked or throttled — a clear violation of the right to information and freedom of communication. It should be noted, however, that mobile internet shutdowns and disruptions to wired connections have been widespread across most regions of Russia for a long time, which makes it difficult to single out issues affecting specific messaging apps. Still, there is clear evidence of a targeted shutdown — one carried out via blocking or throttling — of WhatsApp and Telegram voice and video traffic by authorities and telecom companies. This is confirmed by public information campaigns and official statements indicating plans to impose such restrictions.

Analysts from NA Svyazi believe that the authorities are blocking calls on WhatsApp and Telegram in an effort to encourage Russians to switch to the “national messenger” Max, which the VK company launched in early June.

There have also been reports that telecom operators requested the blocking of WhatsApp and Telegram, as these messengers allow users to save on conventional calls. However, the telecom companies are yet to confirm this. Moreover, if the companies were really looking to increase revenue from voice calls, it would make sense for them to block all messaging apps, including Max — but there is no talk of blocking Max.

Instead, the authorities’ actions suggest that they want people to make calls using Max. Its reliability is being heavily promoted, and officials say it will be included in the “whitelist” of sites and apps that remain available during internet shutdowns. WhatsApp and Telegram use end-to-end encryption, which prevents regulators from accessing user data, whereas Max was designed from the start as a messenger accessible to Russia’s security agencies — and, according to its user agreement, potentially to unspecified third parties as well.

Telegram’s press service told The Insider that any outages in service are not the result of failures in the app itself: “Connection issues experienced by users are not related to any errors on Telegram.”

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