By Kanyshai Butun

ISTANBUL (AA) — Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Saturday that the messaging platform will adapt to restrictions in Russia, making its traffic harder to detect and block.

In a statement, he said 65 million Russians still use Telegram daily via virtual private network (VPN) apps, with more than 50 million sending messages every day despite Moscow’s decision to slow down the service.

He said the Russian government has spent “years” trying to ban VPNs, triggering a massive banking failure.

“Iran banned Telegram years ago, with a result similar to Russia. The government hoped for mass adoption of its surveillance messaging apps, but got mass adoption of VPNs instead,” he wrote on Telegram.

“Now 50M members of the Digital Resistance in Iran are joined by 50M+ more in Russia,” he said, underlining that the nation is now “mobilized to bypass these absurd restrictions.”

“Welcome back to the Digital Resistance, my Russian brothers and sisters," he said.

Russia’s communications regulator has decided to slow down Telegram in February under federal law, citing the app’s failure to comply with about 150,000 requests to remove restricted content, including child pornography and material related to drug trafficking.

Later, a local news agency reported that Durov's actions are under investigation on criminal charges of aiding terrorist activities. Responding to the developments, Durov accused authorities of “fabricating new pretexts” to restrict access to Telegram.

Russian authorities have intensified a crackdown on foreign communication tools, recently restricting WhatsApp after its parent company, Meta, allegedly refused to comply with Russian law.

In response, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov urged citizens to switch to “Max,” a state-developed messaging app that has been mandatory on new devices since 2025.

While Telegram remains an important communication tool, including for military purposes, it is under increasing pressure from Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, controlling, and censoring Russian mass media, regarding data localization and anti-terrorism regulations.

Durov has previously said the restrictions are an attempt to push users onto state-monitored platforms, echoing concerns raised by Meta about political censorship.