Telegram CEO urges Russians to 'stock up' on VPNs as the platform gets an anti-censorship boost

Date:
Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:31:49 +0000

Description:
With Telegram connectivity in Russia dropping to just 5% last Friday, Pavel Durov has announced a major upgrade to the app's anti-censorship protocols. However, reliable VPNs remain a vital lifeline for users. Here's everything
we know.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Telegram has upgraded its anti-censorship protocol amid Russia's blocks Telegram's CEO still urges people in Russia to "stock up on several VPNs" Durov also suggests avoiding using Russian apps while connected to a VPN Telegram's CEO is urging people in Russia to "stock up on several VPNs" as
the messaging platform deploys new technology to combat the
government-imposed ban.

On Saturday, Pavel Durov announced an upgrade to the app's anti-censorship protocol designed to keep users online despite interference. The update follows reports that Telegram connectivity in Russia plummeted to just 5% on Friday, according to data from the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) and cited by Novaya Gazeta. You may like Telegram CEO condemns new restrictions in Russia as citizens turn to VPNs to bypass the blocks Telegram shutdown begins in Russia here's everything we know Russia's major internet services instructed on how to detect VPNs

While Telegram is hardening its own infrastructure, reliable VPN services remain a necessity to mask user IP addresses and bypass the restrictions.

Durov also suggests avoiding Russian apps while connected to a VPN. This advice comes amid reports that the Kremlin is successfully to detecting and blocking active VPN connections. The fight for Telegram (Image credit: Future + Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images + ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images) Following months of intermittent disruptions, Russian authorities moved to fully block the nations most popular messaging service in March.

Data from OONI reveals a rapid deterioration in service quality over the last 30 days, culminating in a record 95% failure rate on Friday morning. This is
a sharp escalation from the 79% failure rate recorded just 24 hours earlier.

The surge in blocking triggered an immediate response from Telegrams engineering team, which deployed the upgraded anti-censorship protocol within a day of the blackout. In his announcement, Durov urged all Russian users to update their apps immediately to maintain a stable connection. Weve upgraded Telegrams anti-censorship protocol. Users in Russia are advised to update their apps to stay connected. Thanks to the Russian peoples Digital Resistance, Telegram usage there remained stable over the past week despite the full ban. April 11, 2026 While Moscow claims the restrictions are necessary to combat criminal activity and protect personal data, Durov argues the ban is a purely political maneuver. He contends that the government is trying to force citizens onto "MAX," a state-controlled messaging
alternative.

This view is shared by several prominent digital rights organizations. Sarkis Darbinyan, an expert at RKS Global, told TechRadar earlier this month that
the crackdown is a calculated attempt to push the population into the state-sanctioned digital ecosystem "by any means necessary." What to read
next Russias crackdown on VPNs reaches new heights as internet restrictions intensify 'Switch to MAX, by any means necessary' Inside Russias great internet crackdown Russia is using DNS and DPI to block YouTube, Telegram and WhatsApp while pushing state-controlled MAX as alternative

Telegram is currently the last major holdout in the country; WhatsApp,
Signal, and Discord are already blocked, alongside Meta-owned platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Are VPNs still a viable option? As Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) become a lifeline for those in Russia, authorities are escalating their efforts to make these tools harder to use.

Following the initial Telegram ban, government official Andrey Svintsov claimed that the media regulator, Roskomnadzor, now has the technical capability to selectively restrict VPN traffic, suggesting that circumvention tools would soon become ineffective.

However, these claims have not yet matched reality. Millions of users
continue to bypass restrictions using VPN protocols that disguise encrypted traffic as standard web browsing.

In a recent update , Pavel Durov confirmed that over 50 million Russians
still use Telegram daily via VPNs. For accuracy, over 50M Russians send at least one message every day, with 65M daily active users in Russia overall despite the ban. Monthly active users remain to be seen, but could easily be twice as high. April 4, 2026 However, the Kremlin seems determined to reverse this. Last week, Minister of Digital Development Maksut Shadaev launched a plan to "reduce VPN usage," introducing new blocking mandates for companies alongside fines and fees for individual VPN users.

While some censorship-resistant VPNs, including Amnezia VPN , Windscribe ,
and NymVPN , have told TechRadar that their products are still working in the country, the situation is rapidly changing.

Because of that, Durov's advice to "stock up" on multiple services is a practical necessity. This means that if an app becomes unavailable, you can quickly hop to other alternatives.

Both Windscribe and Amenzia VPN offer secure free apps, which are
specifically designed to defeat Russia's blocking. Proton VPN Free and PrivadoVPN Free are then the top recommendations in our best free VPN guide. Today's best VPN deals NordVPN 2 Year 2.59 /mth View +3 months free Surfshark 24 Months 1.49 /mth View Proton VPN 2.39 /mth View +4 MONTHS FREE ExpressVPN 24 month 1.74 /mth View We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to
click the Follow button!



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/telegram-ceo-urges-russians -to-stock-up-on-vpns-as-the-platform-gets-an-anti-censorship-boost


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)