Peskov warns Russia’s influence abroad undermined by its refusal to use ‘hostile’ social media platforms

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has warned that Russia’s own policy of not using “hostile” social media platforms such as Telegram to spread its message abroad was effectively depriving the Kremlin of a useful propaganda tool, TASS reported on Wednesday.

Speaking at a technology and media conference held at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, Peskov warned that the Russian government’s policy of not using foreign-owned social media platforms to broadcast its narratives was harming the Kremlin’s ability to project influence abroad, especially in countries belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the grouping of post-Soviet states that maintain friendly ties with Moscow.

Stressing that traditional methods for spreading propaganda, such as television broadcasts, were no longer effective outside Russia’s borders, Peskov said: “We don’t work with Telegram. So how are we supposed to get our message across? We will have to figure that out.”

Domestically, Russia has been waging war on foreign social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram for over a year, with WhatsApp being blocked in Russia since February and Telegram set to be entirely blocked in the country from 1 April.

Peskov’s comments suggest that attempts to promote Russia’s home-grown, state-backed “everything app” MAX have been met with limited success abroad. On Tuesday, MAX celebrated the platform reaching 100 million registered users, although it did not specify how many of those were located outside Russia.

On Thursday, MAX announced that it was beginning to register new users in 40 additional markets across Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, having already been accessible to users in most of the CIS since November.

The Kremlin’s planned Telegram ban and aggressive promotion of MAX has sparked widespread discontent in Russia, including among pro-Kremlin bloggers and government officials.

Planned protests in defence of Telegram were shut down by the authorities in at least eight Russian cities in recent weeks, while Russian internet users warned last week that MAX’s mobile application contains spyware that can detect the illicit use of virtual private networks.