The regulator says placing ads on the messaging platform violates Russia’s advertising law.
Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has said that placing advertisements on Telegram violates the country’s advertising legislation, the agency told Vedomosti.
According to the regulator, advertising is prohibited on information resources with restricted access as well as on services deemed undesirable in Russia. The FAS listed social networks Instagram and Facebook (owned by Meta, an organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia), the messenger WhatsApp (also owned by Meta), as well as Telegram and the video platform YouTube among such resources.
“FAS Russia sees signs of violations of advertising legislation in the placement of advertising integrations on these platforms, responsibility for which lies with both the advertiser and the distributor of the advertising,”
the agency said.
The regulator added that when there are sufficient grounds, it is currently taking measures provided for by law.
Telegram itself is not officially blocked in Russia at the moment. However, the country’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has applied measures that slow the platform’s stable operation. Users have complained about slow loading of media and chats. Media outlets, citing sources, report that the messenger could be fully blocked in April.
In 2025, Telegram accounted for 30–40% of blogger advertising placements. The entire influencer marketing segment in Russia was estimated at 50–60 billion rubles in 2025. The Russian advertising market, including the e-commerce and retail media segments, grew by 19–35% year-on-year to between 1.4 trillion and 1.9 trillion rubles.
Experts previously surveyed by Vedomosti did not expect a sharp or large-scale drop in advertising spending on integrations placed in Telegram, as Russian advertisers currently lack an effective alternative.
In December 2025, an average of 74.3 million Russians aged over 12 used Telegram’s mobile and desktop versions daily, making it the most widely used messenger by that measure. The platform’s monthly audience during that period reached 93.6 million users.
In January, according to Mediascope, Telegram’s audience grew to 95.978 million people, surpassing WhatsApp for the first time. WhatsApp recorded 89.418 million users, while the messenger Max ranked third with 73.728 million.
Source: Vedomosti
