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Russia's communications regulator has slowed the Telegram messaging app after a senior government official said foreign intelligence services can access messages sent by Russian soldiers using the platform.
"There is now confirmed information from our agencies that foreign intelligence services have access to correspondence on Telegram," Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev told a State Duma IT Committee meeting Wednesday.
Shadayev said foreign intelligence agencies are using the intercepted data against Russian forces conducting military operations in Ukraine.
The minister said Russia's Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Roskomnadzor, decided to slow Telegram under federal law after the platform ignored 150,000 requests to remove restricted materials.
Shadayev said the measure involves slowing media file transfers while text correspondence remains unaffected.
"There is slowing on the loading of heavy files, which has certainly negatively affected the client experience. But the main functionality is still available," Shadayev told lawmakers.
He added that authorities understand the service's significance and "no one is acting rashly."
"Our military personnel can continue communicating there, but we hope that over time they will switch to another messenger," Shadayev said.
The Russian minister claimed that cases involving the 150,000 ignored content removal requests have a procedural status with ongoing investigations.
More than 30,000 cases were allegedly linked to sabotage and attacks, while many violations involved fraud.
"According to our laws, a messaging application operating on Russian territory is required to store voice call recordings and message content within the country," Shadayev said, indicating Telegram has not complied with data localization requirements.
Andrey Klishas, head of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, warned Friday that Telegram could be completely blocked in Russia if it fails to comply with legislative requirements.
The warning comes as Russian authorities intensify restrictions on foreign communication tools. Officials recently restricted WhatsApp after its parent company, Meta, allegedly refused to comply with Russian legal requirements.
Following the WhatsApp restriction, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged citizens to switch to "Max," a state-developed national messenger that has been mandatory on new devices since 2025.
Critics say Max is a surveillance tool, though Russian authorities deny this.
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Telegram remains one of the most popular messaging services in Russia and is widely used by Russian forces fighting in Ukraine despite mounting pressure from Roskomnadzor over data localization and anti-terrorism regulations.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has previously said such restrictions are an attempt to push users toward state-monitored platforms, echoing concerns raised by Meta about political censorship.
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