Press Release, 3.09.2025

The Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg has prepared appeals on behalf of the Assembly to the head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Maxim Shaskolsky and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, demanding they influence the situation and stop the violation of fair competition and a number of Constitutional provisions (Articles 8, 23, 29, and 34) in blocking voice calls in Telegram and WhatsApp messengers for Russian citizens. It is also necessary to initiate proceedings for violation of antimonopoly legislation and issue Roskomnadzor (the Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Communications) with an order to cease actions that restrict competition and violate citizens’ rights. Shortly after the documents are registered, St Petersburg parliamentary deputies will have to vote for these appeals.

It should be noted that in August, Roskomnadzor announced “measures to partially restrict calls” in the Telegram and WhatsApp messengers. The agency refers to citizens’ appeals as well as police statements, claiming that the services have become primary “channels for fraud and even terrorist activity”.

Yabloko considers the restriction of messenger services to be crude and inadmissible interference in the private lives of millions of citizens, a violation of their constitutional right to free choice of means of communication, as well as another attempt to create artificial barriers to competition in the digital services market.

It should be noted that according to Mediascope data, WhatsApp was used by 96.2 million Russians over 12 years old, and Telegram by 89.8 million, as of July 2025. These are not just figures—these are dozens of millions of citizens for whom messengers have become the primary means of communication, especially an accessible and inexpensive one. The attempt to restrict voice calls in these applications is coercing citizens to use more expensive traditional communication services and is, in essence, economic violence. This is a blow to people with low incomes, small entrepreneurs, and those living in Russian regions.

Moreover, official statistics do not confirm Roskomnadzor’s claims. The Central Bank provides the following data on telephone fraud methods:

45.6% — through mobile phone calls;

15.7% — through messengers;

10.3% — through social networks;

7.7% — through email.

Thus, Roskomnadzor’s claims do not correspond to reality. Furthermore, restricting calls in messengers will not solve the fraud problem, but will only create new problems for citizens.

Yabloko insists that no fight against crime can justify restricting basic freedoms. Roskomnadzor has no right to act in the interests of oligarchs and monopolies whilst forgetting about the Constitution.