Russia’s attempt to block Telegram in 2018 ended in failure: the messenger kept functioning even as Roskomnadzor imposed mass restrictions on Amazon and Google IP addresses, disrupting many unrelated services. In response, the authorities abandoned crude IP blocking and began building a more centralized system of internet control.
The conflict began after the 2016 Yarovaya package, which required messengers to register with Roskomnadzor, identify users, store data in Russia, and hand encryption keys to the FSB. Pavel Durov refused to comply, saying Telegram does not provide data or keys to third parties, including governments.
In 2017, Telegram was fined 800,000 rubles for refusing to give the FSB access keys to user correspondence. In April 2018, a court ordered the service blocked, but the ban never fully worked: Telegram kept changing IP addresses, distributing traffic, and relying on VPNs and proxy servers.
The state then shifted toward the “sovereign internet” law, adopted in 2019, and the rollout of DPI for targeted traffic filtering. The technology was later used, among other cases, to slow Twitter in 2021 and YouTube in 2024.
“There is a difference between 2018 and 2026,” cyber lawyer Sarkis Darbinyan told Novaya-Europe, arguing that Roskomnadzor has become a “super-regulator” equipped with automated censorship tools.
In June 2020, Roskomnadzor announced that restrictions on Telegram had been lifted, although, as TASS noted, the court ruling ordering the block was never formally canceled. By November 2025, Telegram’s unique user base in Russia had reached about 105 million. Darbinyan says the platform could lose part of its audience under renewed pressure, but growing VPN use still works in its favor.