Daghestan residents regain access to Telegram

Access to the social networking app Telegram has ‘unofficially’ been restored in Daghestan after being blocked from the end of 2024. No changes to the block have been made in neighbouring Chechnya, however.

The local Telegram channel Ask Rasul was the first to report that accessing Telegram in Daghestan no longer required a VPN connection.

The information was subsequently confirmed to the Russian newspaper Vedomosti by a source close to Daghestan’s government, who stated that access to Telegram had been restored the week prior, though many users did not immediately notice.

Telegram was first blocked in both Daghestan towards the end of 2024. At the time, Daghestan’s Minister of Digital Development, Yuri Gamzatov, stated that the decision was made at the federal level based on requests from law enforcement agencies. He noted that the messenger was often used by ‘hostile elements’, citing as an example the unrest at Makhachkala airport in October 2023, when one local Telegram channel was used to coordinate the actions of protesters.

However, in March 2025, the Daghestani authorities appealed to federal bodies to reconsider the block. The republic’s Ministry of Digital Development stressed that the socio-political situation in the region was stable, and that the continued blocking of Telegram was causing inconvenience to residents and visitors, especially tourists.

The block on Telegram in Chechnya also occurred at around the same time, with a source close to the Daghestani administration stating that it had been blocked following the deadly crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane on the Baku–Grozny route near Kazakhstan’s Aktau on 25 December 2024. The source indicated that the block was related to security concerns, as Telegram is allegedly used by lawbreakers, particularly supporters of radical Islamic movements.

On 10 March 2025, Chechnya’s Minister for National Policy, External Relations, Press, and Information, Akhmed Dudaev, called the blocking of Telegram ‘absolutely unfounded and irrational.’ He emphasised that the residents of the region have the same right to access and distribute information as any other citizen of the country.

Telegram is not the only messaging app to be blocked in Russia.

In March 2022, both Facebook and Instagram were blocked after their parent company Meta was designated an extremist organisation. The reason cited was the allowance of posts calling for violence against Russian military personnel and leadership. Use of these platforms for personal purposes is not prosecuted, but commercial use is banned.

In turn, Discord was blocked in October 2024 due to the distribution of user-generated content that ‘violates Russian law.’

Shortly after, in December 2024, Viber was blocked for allegedly violating Russian laws, including the dissemination of illegal content and the use of the service for terrorist purposes.

That same month, WhatsApp was added to the register of information dissemination organisers, obliging it to store user data and provide said data at the request of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Although the messenger remains available for now, its future in Russia remains uncertain.

Furthermore, Russia has seen an increase in the number of blocked materials promoting VPN services. Since the beginning of 2025, Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor has blocked 12,600 such materials, almost twice the number in 2024.

In March 2025, a law was passed in Russia prohibiting the use of foreign messengers for communication with citizens and clients in state and financial organisations. Fines of up to ₽700,000 ($56,000) are imposed for violations.

Daghestan authorities admit Russia is blocking Telegram

Although Telegram has been inaccessible without a VPN since last year, Daghestan authorities have only now officially acknowledged its blocking.

OC MediaElizaveta Chukharova