Telegram can no longer be accessed in Russia, even via a VPN
Users in Russia are reporting widespread outages on Telegram, which have been ongoing for several days.
According to monitoring services Downdetector and "sboy.rf," the number of complaints began to rise rapidly as early as the weekend, and experts are certain that the Kremlin has moved to a full-scale block of the platform.
The largest number of reports of problems is coming from Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Moscow region.
Users note that the app is not working “at all”: messages are not being sent, photos and videos are not uploading, and the mobile version has become virtually inaccessible without using complex tools to bypass restrictions.
On Saturday, March 14, alone, about 6,000 complaints were recorded, and by Sunday, March 15, that number had doubled, reaching 12,000.
Industry experts attribute this to the start of the active phase of blocking the messenger via technical countermeasures (TCMs) controlled by Roskomnadzor.
Alexey Amelkin, president of the telecommunications operators’ association “MAKATEL,” confirmed that artificial slowdowns of the messenger have been observed for some time, but the situation has now become critical.
Recently, even the desktop version of the app began malfunctioning on a massive scale, indicating a systematic attack on Telegram’s infrastructure within Russia.
As a reminder, is it possible to block Telegram in Ukraine, and does it make sense to do so?
Telegram has also rolled out a major update with a range of new features for regular users and Premium subscribers.
