New Delhi, April 4 Telegram founder Pavel Durov on Saturday said that more than 50 million Russians use the messaging platform daily despite a government ban, as attempts to block virtual private networks triggered a nationwide banking failure that briefly left cash as the only payment method.
Taking to the microblogging platform X, Durov said over 50 million Russians send at least one message on Telegram every day, with total daily active users in Russia reaching 65 million.
He further stated that monthly active users could easily be twice as high.
The Russian government has spent years attempting to ban both Telegram and the VPNs used to access it, but Durov said the blocking attempts backfired, causing a massive disruption to the country's banking infrastructure.
Iran faces a similar situation, Durov added.
Despite banning Telegram years ago, the government's hope of driving users toward state-sanctioned surveillance messaging applications was met instead with mass adoption of VPNs. Telegram now counts over 50 million active members in Iran, which Durov referred to collectively as the 'Digital Resistance.'
"50 million members of the 'Digital Resistance' in Iran are joined by 50 million-plus more in Russia," Durov wrote.
The latest remarks follow an escalating confrontation between Durov and Russian authorities.
In February, Durov said Russia had opened a criminal case against him for 'aiding terrorism', calling it a fabricated pretext to restrict Russians' access to Telegram and suppress privacy and free speech.
"A sad spectacle of a state afraid of its own people," he wrote at the time.
Durov also pushed back in during the month against Russia's broader strategy of banning foreign technology platforms to promote homegrown alternatives, calling the approach delusional.
He argued that every successful national super app such as WeChat, KakaoTalk, and LINE as examples was built through fierce private competition, not by eliminating rivals.
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