Roskomnadzor unblocks Telegram

Roskomnadzor decided to remove restrictions on access to the Telegram messenger. This is stated in the message of the service.

“We positively assess the readiness expressed by the founder of Telegrams to counter terrorism and extremism. In agreement with the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, Roskomnadzor removes the requirements to restrict access to the Telegram messenger.

How Telegram was blocked

Roskomnadzor has been trying to block Telegram since April 2018, after the messenger refused to provide the FSB with encryption keys under the Yarovaya law and the court issued a corresponding decision. Founder Pavel Durov then referred to the technical impossibility.

The first attempts by Roskomnadzor to block the messenger by IP addresses caused interruptions in the operation of other services and segments of the Runet, and the messenger itself, thanks to its distributed structure, learned how to effectively bypass them. Since 2019, Telegram has been operating almost without interruption, its channels are increasingly used by government agencies.

at unlocking the messenger Durov himself recently hinted . “Unblocking would allow thirty million Telegram users in Russia to use the service more comfortably. In addition, it could have a positive impact on the innovative development and national security of the country,” he wrote. According to Durov, the claims of two years ago regarding the use of Telegram by terrorists are irrelevant: mechanisms have been developed that will prevent terrorist attacks while maintaining the secrecy of correspondence.

How Telegram was unblocked

The bill to unblock the messenger this year was prepared by Right-wing Russians Tumusov and Ionin. They proposed to stop the farce with the ban on the messenger, which has become the de facto official channel of government agencies.

Today, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proposed to correct the court decision to block Telegram two years ago if it cannot be enforced.

According to RBC , the decision to unblock was made by relevant departments with the participation of the presidential administration. “It would be a positive example that we have good businessmen returning to their homeland,” says one of the sources of the publication. Another is sure that the messenger was “credited” with prompt informing the population about the situation with the coronavirus in the form of channels of operational headquarters.

The interlocutors of the publication are not sure whether the conflict between Durov and the power bloc has been exhausted. After the news about the unlock, Interfax, citing a source, wrote that the provision of encryption keys had become irrelevant due to technical reasons. “However, the messenger interacts on specific cases in the fight against terrorism,” the agency writes.