Blocking has pushed Russia further away from ‘digital sovereignty,’ Pavel Durov says

Blocking has pushed Russia further away from ‘digital sovereignty,’ said Pavel Durov

Because of it, talented developers are leaving Russia who, among other things, could have created a domestic operating system. Without one, all smartphone apps remain vulnerable to “targeted surveillance and censorship by the U.S. through backdoors and the iOS and Android app stores,” Durov claims.

“Replacing ‘foreign’ apps with ‘national’ ones while keeping American operating systems is changing the packaging without changing the substance. The Russian official who broke the internet and threw the country back by decades under the pretext of ‘digital sovereignty’ deserves a national security medal — from the United States,” the Telegram founder added.

The Telegram messenger was definitively blocked in Russia in spring 2026. The authorities are forcing users to switch to its domestic counterpart, the Max messenger.

@meduzalive