Telegram will retain the ability to operate in Russia, provided that Russian legislation is respected, said Sergei Boyarsky, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy. When asked whether the messenger would remain in the country even with the development of domestic platforms, he replied briefly: "Of course, it will remain."
Boyarsky explained the logic of regulatory requirements through an analogy with traffic rules: Russian services operate according to established rules, while a foreign messenger "drives in the oncoming lane without license plates" - and until the violations are eliminated, it is sent "to the impound lot."
First Deputy Chairman of the same committee, Anton Gorelkin, previously stated that Telegram "went too far" in the issue of anonymity, which made the messenger popular among criminals. According to him, in the 2010s, a public demand for privacy was formed, which was used, among others, by drug dealers and fraudsters - and the claims against the platform from the authorities of different countries are precisely of this nature.
The position on the logic of restrictions is also shared by Mikhail Barshchevsky, the former Plenipotentiary Representative of the Government in the Constitutional and Supreme Courts: according to him, the actions of the state are "absolutely logical", and the behavior of WhatsApp and Telegram is "unreasonable", since the companies operate on the territory of Russia, but do not comply with its legislation. He, however, admitted that restricting messengers "will complicate the lives of millions of people."
According to RBC sources, the authorities are considering the possibility of completely blocking Telegram in early April. Since August 2025, the RCN has been consistently introducing restrictions on calls in the messenger, explaining this by the fact that the service has become the main tool for fraudsters and involving citizens in illegal activities.
