(Reuters) – Billionaire Telegram founder Pavel Durov said on Saturday that Russia’s attempt to block Virtual Private Networks (VPN) triggered a problem with a domestic payment system, adding that tens of millions of Russians were resisting digital controls.
Russia has repeatedly blocked mobile internet and granted sweeping powers to cut mass communications, blocking messaging services and VPNs in what diplomats called a ‘major crackdown’.
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Friday’s technical problem, which Russia has yet to fully explain, sowed chaos for some shoppers, forcing the Moscow metro to allow payment-free entry at its turnstiles, while a regional zoo had to ask visitors to use cash.
“Welcome back to the Digital Resistance, my Russian brothers and sisters,” Durov said on Telegram. ‘The entire nation is now mobilized to circumvent these absurd restrictions.’
Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, said there was a technical problem on Friday, but did not give details. Some Russian media excluded reports that the outage stemmed from state proposals to block certain websites or VPNs.
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Russian authorities say a crackdown on VPNs and messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram is essential for security as Moscow faces deadly attacks inside Russia from Ukraine and alleged sabotage attempts by Western intelligence agencies.
Russia slowed Telegram, which has more than 1 billion active users and is also widely used in Ukraine, and investigated Durov in a criminal case involving terrorism charges.
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Russian officials said that Telegram was hacked by Ukraine and NATO intelligence agencies, and that Russian soldiers died as a result.
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Telegram has denied such penetration, saying Moscow is trying to force Russians to use MAX, a state-backed messaging app that schools and universities have been instructed to use.
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The Kremlin’s push toward the app has upset some Russians, Reuters reported on Friday.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
