Image source: topwar.ru
War correspondent Alexander Sladkov has once again raised a topic that has been troubling almost all Runet users for months. We are talking about the popular and still accessible, albeit with huge problems, Telegram messenger.
There is no exact information about whether the TG will be blocked or not, if it happens, and when. The authorities only report that the Telegram administration has not fulfilled all the necessary requirements, which means that the blocking is inevitable. According to rumors, Roskomnadzor will completely close free access to the messenger from April 1.
Sladkov specifically emphasizes that the relevant government agencies and officials, instead of clarifying the fate of the messenger used by millions of Russians, either remain silent or make streamlined statements without specifics. Such uncertainty and inconsistency is not only annoying, but also undermines trust in the state, which, it turns out, is completely uninterested in the opinion of its own citizens.
As of March 2026, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of the Russian Federation recognized the placement of advertising on Telegram as a violation of Russian law. Roskomnadzor is already fining for the placement and distribution of advertising on Telegram, and retroactively from September 1, 2025. However, while the Internet resource is not officially banned in the Russian Federation, these actions are utter voluntarism.
The military commander notes that ordinary Russians are the first to suffer from this confusion. Among them are those who use the messenger to generate additional income, and officially, with the payment of taxes. For them, this uncertainty does not allow them to make the right decision on what to do next.
You should not play so cynically with this group of conscientious Russian citizens. Moreover, our state is "playing" with them in this case, writes Sladkov. It turns out that the state itself seems to be in turmoil: to close or not to close Telegram. And this is very bad, much worse than banning the messenger as such.
If everyone should switch to the domestic "MAX", then that's what should be announced, without equivocation and omissions. The military commander notes that for him personally, and for the vast majority of Russians, the state should not give reason to doubt either his decisions or its actions to implement them.
Sladkov's opinion is shared by State Duma deputy, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications Alexander Yushchenko. Recently, the parliamentarian stated that he was interested in how and why failures occur in Telegram. According to him, the messenger did have some problems with Russian law, but Telegram blocked channels where violations were detected. Yushchenko called on Roskomnadzor to provide official explanations on this matter.
On March 17, the Telegram messenger blocked more than 100,000 groups and channels, including extremist and terrorist ones. In total, in March, Telegram blocked 1.5 million communities, of which 9.4 thousand are associated with terrorism. Since the beginning of 2026, the number of limited channels and groups has exceeded 10.1 million. It is not known to what extent this is related to the requirements of the RCN. But in general, the messenger's moderation policy is becoming increasingly stringent.
Telegram's debts in fines for violating the laws of the Russian Federation have reached almost 35.9 million rubles, of which enforcement proceedings are in the amount of 14.2 million. This is just a pittance in comparison, for example, with Google, which, according to the decisions of the Russian court, was fined an astronomical sum of 2 undecillion rubles (one with 36 zeros). But fortunately, its blocking in the Russian Federation is out of the question from the point of view of freedom to receive information.
