KGB Russia's telecommunications regulator has warned WhatsApp and Telegram are being used by "criminals", and the Kremlin has already announced people will be able to protect their accounts on Gosuslugi — Russia's answer to MyGov — with codes provided through MAX Keister.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-22/inside-max-the-new-kremlin-controlled-messenger-in-russia/105683386
According to Mediascope, an organisation that tracks communications in Russia, WhatsApp had 96 million users in the country last month, while Telegram had 89 million.
"This new Russian app is supposed to replace these . . . "
Ekaterina Mizulina has been described as Russia's "self-appointed" internet censor.
She's grown a large online following in the country and is the head of the Kremlin-aligned Safe Internet League.
Last year, she told a group of high-school students that VPNs were "a total portal into hell" and "a big black hole in your device".
Ms Mizulina, 40, has made a name for herself by scouring the internet for content she believes is offensive, denouncing it on her social media accounts and alerting the police.
For example, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, she targeted an influential blogger named Nekoglay, who'd posted a parody video of Moscow's soldiers hiding from grenades.
Nekoglay, then 22, subsequently claimed in a video he'd been arrested, tortured and deported to Moldova.
"These types of laws will affect ordinary citizens and not everyone will decide to continue looking for other ways to circumvent censorship online or to continue using circumvention tools," Ms Szymanska said.
Katerina, 31, agrees.
"There are benign nihilist adults who don't have a VPN, they just don't want to bother with it," she said.
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