Press Release, 18.02.2026

Photo: Kirill Goncharov, Ivan Bolshakov, and Nikolai Rybakov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Yabloko party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, member of the Federal Political Committee Ivan Bolshakov, and Chair of Moscow Yabloko Kirill Goncharov have submitted a notification to the Moscow city government regarding a rally in Moscow in defence of the Telegram messenger, access to information, and freedom of speech.

According to the notification, the event is scheduled for 1 March, with an expected attendance of up to 5,000 people.

“The Mayor’s Office has no legal grounds for a ban. The Russian Constitution explicitly grants us the right to hold such events. We demand an end to the practices of blocking and insist that our rights be respected. If the authorities attempt to break the law and ban the rally, that will be a political decision on their part, not a legal one,” Nikolai Rybakov emphasised.

Telegram is the last space of freedom in Russia where people can still share their opinions with one another, read alternative news, and draw their own conclusions, Ivan Bolshakov noted: “Blocking Telegram and administratively imposing the [official national] Max messenger means strangling the voices of millions of Russians and binding their mouths with chains of censorship. No Internet service has ever become a market leader through coercion.”

The matter concerns the information freedom and freedom of speech of dozens or even hundreds of millions of people, Kirill Goncharov observed: “Naturally, we cannot ignore what is happening, cannot fail to notice the statements about specific deadlines for blocking the messenger, and will not and shall not turn a blind eye to yet another attempt to violate the constitutional rights of Russian citizens.”

It should be noted that on 10 February it was reported that Roskomnadzor (the Russian telecommunications watchdog) had begun to slow down — and in some cases even block — Telegram, stating that the messenger “does not comply with the legislation of the Russian Federation.” The restrictions were also explained as measures to protect citizens from fraud and to suppress extremism and terrorism. Immediately thereafter, Yabloko party leader Nikolai Rybakov issued a statement demanding that the authorities “cease restricting the lawful rights of citizens to use communications services of their choice, and lift all restrictions on the operation of Telegram and other messaging applications.”

Subsequently, Yabloko held protest actions in support of Telegram in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg. The party’s branch in Irkutsk also intends to hold a rally in defence of the messenger.