SAEDNEWS: Russia's Interior Ministry said on Friday that the Telegram messaging app is being used to gather personal data on military personnel, law enforcement officers and government officials to facilitate acts of sabotage, terrorism and other illegal activities.
The ministry's cybercrime division stated that messenger services, primarily bots, enable users to obtain personal data illegally to create a “digital profile.”
Such information includes full names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers and details about relatives, according to the ministry's statement posted on Telegram.
“In just one month, their use contributed to the commission of more than 13,000 crimes with damages exceeding 15 billion rubles ($195.5 million),” the ministry said.
The cybercrime department noted that despite efforts to curb the practice, channels and bots offering illegally obtained data continue to operate on messaging platforms.
It added that requests from Interior Ministry units to foreign platforms have received no response or required action under Russian law.
In a related development, Russia's federal communications regulator Roskomnadzor has demanded that Telegram prevent the disclosure of Russian citizens' personal data and cease providing infrastructure for accessing stolen personal information.
Telegram has removed 8,358 such services since 2022 following Roskomnadzor requests and continues to delete up to 100 services weekly in 2026, the RBC news outlet reported, citing the regulator.
"However, the situation remains fundamentally unchanged: new bots are appearing to search for personal data," Roskomnadzor explained.
On Wednesday, Roskomnadzor decided to slow Telegram under federal law.
Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Minister Maksut Shadayev told a State Duma IT Committee meeting that Telegram had ignored 150,000 requests to remove restricted materials, including child pornography and content related to drug trafficking.
Andrey Klishas, head of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, told Sputnik Radio on Friday that Telegram could be completely blocked in Russia if it fails to comply with legislative requirements.
The warning follows intensified restrictions on foreign communication tools.
Officials recently restricted WhatsApp after its parent company, Meta, allegedly refused to comply with Russian legal requirements.
Following the WhatsApp restriction, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged citizens to switch to “Max,” a state-developed national messenger that has been mandatory on new devices since 2025.
Telegram remains widely used in Russia, including by the military, but has faced growing pressure from Roskomnadzor over data localization and anti-terrorism regulations.
