Russia is throttling the country’s top messengers while helping to build a Kremlin-aligned “super-app,” tightening its grip over digital life as blackouts of the mobile internet expand nationwide. The state regulator has slowed down WhatsApp and Telegram voice calls since mid-August, while authorities have required that a new platform, Max, be pre-installed on all devices sold here.
Calls throttled, users nudged to Max
Roskomnadzor’s restrictions targeted the very feature that keeps Russians in touch with contacts free of charge: free internet calls. The disruption occurred as the government introduced Max, known as a “national messenger,” promoted by celebrities and pro-government influencers. Schools have been ordered to transfer parent chats to Max, and regional officials are linking it to emergency alerts and municipal services.
Industry estimates say that WhatsApp’s monthly audience totals 97 million, and Telegram is close behind with around 90 million users in a country of 143 million people. WhatsApp is the default for older users and in remote areas, where it also acts like a local Craigslist, ride service and neighborhood watch. It’s because that ubiquity is exactly why restricting calls hurts — and why redirecting users to Max is the point.
Officials have said they needed the squeeze because of data localization rules and anti-fraud measures. But Central Bank data shows that most scams are still carried out over traditional voice networks, not encrypted messengers, and the campaign is as much about control as the spread of dangerous ideas.
The super‑app strategy and who’s making moves
Max was introduced by VK, the company that owns the country’s biggest social platform. VK’s ownership structure leads to firms connected to Gazprom and Russian businessman Yuri Kovalchuk, a close ally of the Kremlin. Max has been required to be preinstalled on new devices since early September, speeding up its deployment. The company has held itself out as having 30 million users — still far behind incumbents.
The endgame is a WeChat-style super-app that includes chat, payments, government portals and everyday services. It’s the convenient model — but it’s one that single-homes personal data. Max’s privacy policy says it may share information with third parties and government authorities—a warning sign in a nation where prosecutors have targeted citizens for private messages and data breaches generate a steady stream of phone-fraud epidemics.
Citizens are more closely watched than ever
Max or no Max, Russia’s surveillance toolkit was already wide-ranging. In data localization and lawful intercept setups, operators route traffic through systems run by security services, such as SORM, providing access to traffic and metadata. SIM cards need national ID; handing a SIM to non-relatives is now illegal, choking common end-arounds of families and small firms.
The legal pressure online is growing as well. Authorities have banned leading Western platforms since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and declared Meta an “extremist organization,” effectively chilling the use of Facebook and Instagram in the country. New rules would allow for fines for deliberate searching for banned material on the internet, a blacklist kept by the justice ministry. It is illegal to advertise on platforms connected to “extremist” organizations, eliminating a key source of sales for small businesses. “We ban those advertisements,” Clement said of the ads for VPNs, and while using a VPN is not inherently illegal, courts may see it as an aggravating factor in some cases.
Blackouts go from bugs” to features
Intermittent shutdowns of mobile internet have become systemic. According to the civic monitoring project Na Svyazi (In Touch), every region has come under attack since May, with as many as 77 regions getting hammered all at once at the summer peak. Local officials justify the outages as necessary to defend against long-range drone raids from Ukraine.
Telecom analysts such as Mikhail Klimarev of the Internet Protection Society wonder about the efficacy of switch-offs against drones, pointing out the costs.TABLE: Switching off the internet
In Vladimir, portions of the city remained largely offline for weeks, breaking screens displaying bus schedules and driving up taxi fares when drivers lost access to apps. In Krasnoyarsk, a city of more than a million, there was no mobile data service available throughout the city for days on end, and now it is touch and go. State broadcasters euphemized outages as a “digital detox,” just as remote workers forfeited income and local officials caught flak for dismissive comments.
A walled garden for “essential” access
Moscow is experimenting with “whitelisting” in shutdowns, allowing access to only essential online services such as banking, taxis and deliveries — and Max — while effectively cutting off the rest of the internet. It could encourage the rise of state-approved platforms, warn digital rights activists such as Roskomsvoboda’s Sarkis Darbinyan, and those platforms could make it more difficult for people to communicate privately or access independent media, especially if options like VPN marketing or app store paths are restricted.
What to watch next
Adoption is the Kremlin’s toughest sell. Habits die hard when WhatsApp and Telegram make it the hub of family chats, community groups and — because WhatsApp calls still hail from across borders— cross-border calls. But carrots and sticks — preinstallation mandates, preferential access during blackouts, school and emergency integrations, persistent friction on competing apps — can nudge markets over the long run.
Russia’s internet could start to resemble a heavily policed walled garden, if Max were to become the default gateway for payments and public services. The new reality would make everyday convenience feel cheap if, more deeply, data were rendered vulnerable and if there were fewer channels through which to speak without the companies listening. For now, many Russians are still using VPNs, other messengers and good old-fashioned phone calls. And as blackouts widen and exemptions narrow, those options are likely to dwindle — by design.