Press Release, 24.02.2026

Photo by Sergei Konkov, Kommersant

On 24 February, the leader of Irkutsk Yabloko, Grigory Gribenko, and activist Pavel Kharitonenko met with representatives of the city administration and agreed to the relocation of the rally in defence of Telegram and “For a Free Internet!”.

The event will take place on Konny Island, on 1 March at 14:00, Grigory Gribenko announced, recalling that the organisers had originally intended to hold the rally in another place:

“We had submitted an application to hold the rally at Trud Square, but were subsequently informed by the administration that the venue was already booked for another event on 1 March, and an alternative location was proposed. Today we agreed to change the venue. Tomorrow, 25 February, we will meet again with administration representatives, this will be an organisational meeting at which we are to confirm the use of visual materials, the involvement of law enforcement services, and other logistical details required for a mass public event.”

It should be noted that Grigory Gribenko had submitted the application to the Mayor’s Office together with activist Pavel Kharitonenko, stating that the purpose of the rally was to express a civic position in defence of citizens’ constitutional rights in the digital sphere. Participants in the “For a Free Internet!” rally plan to speak out in particular in defence of the Telegram messenger, Gribenko noted in an earlier comment.

Public events in Irkutsk are typically held at Trud Square near the Circus building; however, according to the Mayor’s Office, this venue turned out to be “booked” for 1 March, for an event whose notification the Mayor’s Office had received prior to Yabloko’s application. The administration therefore proposed an alternative venue, also in the city centre, on Konny Island.

It should be noted that Yabloko is also seeking to obtain approval for a Telegram rally in Moscow: a notification for an event of up to 5,000 participants was submitted to the Moscow Mayor’s Office on 18 February.

Since 10 February, when Roskomnadzor (the Russian telecommunications watchdog) first announced restrictions on Telegram’s operation on grounds of “non-compliance with Russian legislation and efforts to combat fraud” Yabloko has, across different regions of the country, demanded that the slow down of the messenger be halted, that the state-backed MAX messenger not be imposed on users, and that Russians’ constitutional rights to freedom of communication and expression be respected.

In particular, Yabloko party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov issued a statement demanding that “the unlawful restriction of citizens’ legal rights be brought to an end”. Subsequently, Yabloko rallies in support of Telegram were held in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Veliky Novgorod.

The Chairman of the Yabloko branch in Udmurtia, Iya Boronina, demanded that the acts of the Ministry of Digital Development and Roskomnadzor that had authorised the slowing down of Telegram be made public, while the leader of Pskov Yabloko, Artur Gaiduk, called on the Federal Antimonopoly Service to investigate the “undue advantages” enjoyed by the MAX messenger against the backdrop of Telegram’s throttling.