Context: Russia has banned all protests against the blocking of Telegram. Despite the restrictions, it has become the country’s most popular messenger, surpassing WhatsApp. Its audience has remained almost unchanged since the beginning of the year, exceeding 95 million people. Meanwhile, WhatsApp has noticeably lost users. Of the top three platforms, Max is the only one that has continued to grow its audience. In Belarus, the landscape looks different. According to 2024 data, Viber is the leader, followed by Telegram in second place and WhatsApp in third.
Radio Minsk host Alena Rodovskaya explained the growth of the Max messenger audience, saying that Russians are allegedly leaving Telegram in advance due to fears it might disappear amid the war in the Middle East.
“Whenever a new platform emerges, people are initially wary of it. Then, they learn how to use it and fall in love with it. Then, for example, Iran a report emerges that it would destroy the entire IT infrastructure of the Middle East if the U.S. strikes the power grid. Given that all of Telegram’s key servers and most of its data is processed there in the Middle East, I guess I understand the Russians’ strategic, common-sense thinking: ‘We’re all switching to Max.’ Because, well, if Telegram disappears, then how are we going to communicate, people? the presenter said on air on March 23, 2026.
Iran indeed stated that if its energy facilities were attacked, it would target "all energy, information technology and desalination infrastructure belonging to the US"in the region. However, this does not mean that Telegram is under direct threat from the servers allegedly hosted there.
Telegram has an office in Dubai, but that doesn’t mean its servers are located there. According to the official documentation, the messenger uses a distributed infrastructure comprising five data centers that each of which can operate independently. This documentation states that Telegram’s data centers are located in the United States, the Netherlands, and Singapore. In other words, the service’s data is not concentrated in the Middle East. The infrastructure is designed so that individual nodes can operate independently.
There is another reason for Max’s audience growth. The government has mandated that sellers of new devices install this messenger by default.
Meanwhile, Telegram continues to be throttled and blocked in Russia. Nevertheless, users are not rushing to switch to the domestic messenger en masse and are looking for alternatives. For example, KakaoTalk, a South Korean messaging app, has seen dramatic growth in popularity in the Russian Federation.