Telegram founder claims Russia’s VPN restrictions triggered bank outage
The millionaire founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, blamed the nationwide banking disruption on Russia’s attempts to limit virtual private networks and Telegram. “Telegram was banned in Russia, yet 65 million Russians still use it daily via VPNs,” Durov wrote on Telegram Saturday. The government has tried to outlaw VPNs for years. Their blocking tactics caused a catastrophic banking failure yesterday, leaving cash the only payment mechanism nationwide.”
Industry sources unidentified on Friday said that VPN restrictions may have caused banking app disruptions. The disruption may have been triggered by an overload in Russia’s communications watchdog’s filtering systems, reports say. Experts warn that major limitations could undermine network stability. No Russian officials have commented on the outages. Apple Inc. announced on its website that payments for its app store and other services stopped in Russia on April 1, without explaining why.
Source said that the Digital Development Ministry has instructed mobile companies to stop top-ups to reduce VPN use. As it pushes Russians to use Max, a state-run “super-app” based after China’s WeChat, Moscow has tightened internet and app restrictions in recent months. YouTube, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Telegram are blocked. Russians use VPNs to access prohibited content, but authorities have increased VPN restrictions this week. In discussions with Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev, proposals include taxing VPN users for foreign data traffic over a particular level and restricting VPN access to such platforms starting April 15.
Durov, who is being investigated in Russia for allegedly supporting terrorists, compared the situation in his nation to Iran, where similar limitations led to widespread use of VPNs instead of state-backed messaging apps. “Welcome back to the Digital Resistance, my Russian brothers and sisters,” Durov, who has lived in Dubai and France, remarked. “The entire nation is now mobilized to bypass these absurd restrictions,” he said, adding that Telegram would keep improving its anonymity.
