Russia thwarts protests over the blocking of a popular messaging app, but frustration persists

Women look at their smartphones while riding a bus in Moscow, on March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

In one Russian city, officials blocked a rally due to a “tree inspection.” Elsewhere, they blamed snow removal problems or still-existing COVID-19 restrictions. And in one location, administrators argued that the reason for the protest didn’t exist.

Authorities in nearly a dozen Russian regions in recent weeks cited various excuses to prevent demonstrations against internet censorship and the blocking of the popular messaging app Telegram.

In most cases, they succeeded. Mindful of a crackdown on dissent since the 4-year-old invasion of Ukraine, activists decided not to risk holding unauthorized rallies, even if they weren’t about the war. Some went to court to challenge government refusals to authorize pickets, while others scaled them back to smaller indoor gatherings.

But the disapproval persists across the political spectrum over moves against Russia’s second-most popular messaging app, adding to frustrations over a growing list of various issues that plague the country.

“Clearly the situation has changed, the laws have become stricter, but the protest hasn’t gone anywhere,” said Alexander Sustov, a legislator in Russia’s far eastern Primorye region where a pro-Telegram rally was blocked last month.

“Discontent remains. And any ban only fuels that discontent,” he said.

Online control

Restricting Telegram is Russia’s latest move to put the internet under government control. Thousands of websites and platforms are blocked, as are multiple virtual private networks that allow users to circumvent censorship. Widespread cellphone internet shutdowns leave only a handful of government-approved websites available.

Telegram trails only WhatsApp — also severely restricted — in popularity among Russians, and is widely used by government agencies for their official social media presence, as well as by pro-Kremlin commentators and military bloggers with hundreds of thousands of followers.

Authorities encourage users to switch to MAX, a government-backed messaging app that critics say is a state surveillance tool.

Military bloggers criticize the moves against Telegram, arguing it is an indispensable communications tool for Russian troops in Ukraine and for activists running crowdfunding campaigns to help Moscow’s forces.

The government initially promised not to restrict Telegram on the battlefield, but a different signal later came from the Kremlin.

At a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin for International Women’s Day, a servicewoman called Telegram “an adversarial communications tool” and agreed with him when he said that “the use of communications systems that are not ours, not under our control, poses a danger to personnel” in battle.

Unconfirmed media reports predict the coming weeks will see a complete blocking of the app, which in December 2025 had 93.6 million monthly users in Russia, or 76 per cent of the population, according to monitoring group Mediascope.

Protests stifled from Moscow to Siberia

Blocking Telegram prompted various political forces — including those who support the war or the Kremlin in general — to act.

Widespread dismay and the lack of a black-and-white narrative to justify the restrictions made “people feel like they can afford to protest here,” said political analyst Abbas Gallyamov.

Last month, members of Other Russia, an ultranationalist, pro-war group, blocked the entrance to the Moscow office of state media and internet regulator Roskomnadzor with a bicycle cable and displayed a banner saying: “Give us an internet without supervision, (and) Russia without Roskom-disgrace.”

In December, the group hung a banner at the agency’s St. Petersburg office, saying, “Roskomnadzor, ban this banner.”

All were arrested, with the Moscow activists facing criminal charges.

Regional branches of the Communist Party, which generally supports the Kremlin, tried to organize rallies in several places. In Siberia’s Altai region, they were turned down after local officials said claims of an internet clampdown were “at odds with reality.” In southern Krasnodar, a rally for later in March has been authorized on the outskirts of the city.

In the northern cities of Naryan-Mar and Syktyvkar, Communist Party activists managed to hold pickets, with placards saying, “It is not up to officials to decide what we read,” and “The internet is not a prison.”

But those were exceptions, with authorities elsewhere refusing to allow rallies or blocking them at the last minute.

Organizers in the Ural Mountains city of Perm secured a permit for a March 15 demonstration, but two hours before its start, activists were told of a “potential emergency situation” at the rally site that made it unsuitable for a gathering.

Some still showed up. Viktor Gilin, 80, unfurled a banner that read, “Vladimir Putin! I demand that you bring back freedom of thought and speech — the internet!” He was swiftly detained and fined.

In the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, 16 people were detained this month at the site of a planned pro-Telegram rally. Although authorization for the protest at that square wasn’t needed, participants arrived to find the site marked off with tape for a purported “tree inspection,” said activist Roman Malozyomov.

Malozyomov and other activists, journalists and some passersby were detained but let go after a few hours. He went straight to the Lenin Square for a one-man picket with a sign proclaiming he wanted to “stay connected,” with the Roskomnadzor logo crossed out.

This week, activists in several regions filed for authorization of more rallies on March 29. Some were swiftly rejected.

Protesting other issues — cautiously

Rallies have been rare since anti-war protests were brutally suppressed in 2022, with political prosecutions skyrocketing and laws restricting dissent multiplying.

Smaller demonstrations persisted in spots, including unauthorized ones. Wives of soldiers picketed at the Kremlin and the Defense Ministry in 2024, and over 1,000 people gathered that same year in the Bashkortostan region to protest the jailing of a local activist, resulting in mass arrests.

Farmers in Siberia protested this month over cattle culling they deem unwarranted. In northern Komi, workers at a woodworking plant rallied to demand back pay.

Hundreds joined an authorized rally in October in Vladivostok to protest increased car registration fees, one of the largest gatherings in the Pacific coast city in years.

In Siberia’s Tomsk, activist Anton Isakov recently managed to organize an authorized demonstration against the blocking of popular online game platform Roblox and another against animal cruelty.

If authorities allow protests, there are ready participants because of the many issues “that people want to speak out about,” he said. His attempts to get a permit for a pro-Telegram rally have been refused so far.

Malozyomov, the Novosibirsk activist, said small, authorized rallies on issues such as high utility costs are often allowed there because “the authorities are trying to give people an opportunity to vent, so that the tension doesn’t build up.”

Some are trying measures other than rallies.

Konstantin Larionov in Kaluga, southwest of Moscow, and 41 others filed a lawsuit against Roskomnadzor and other government officials last year, arguing that restrictions on Telegram and WhatsApp violate their free speech and privacy rights.

Larionov urged others to join by petitioning the court via email, and the number of plaintiffs swelled to 105. He said it was encouraging to see people “from different parts of the country” willing to take part.

The court sided with the authorities. Larionov appealed and lost but plans to go all the way up to the Supreme Court.

He admits the ability to protest in Russia has shrunk but believes it’s important to keep trying.

“We are, maybe, retreating a little bit, but we’re not giving up,” he said.

Analyst Gallyamov says the Telegram protests are more about signaling popular discontent than “fighting the regime.”

But “it is another crack in the foundation” of Putin’s rule, he said.

Dasha Litvinova, The Associated Press