Putin Regime Now Targeting Telegram Channels

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 11 – In a sign of their growing importance as sources of news and commentaries given the vast number of Internet sites the Russian government has closed down since the start of Putin’s expanded invasion of Ukraine, some of the country’s top telegram channels have been targeted by the FSB and interior ministry.

            Most of the attacks have taken the form of detaining administrators or other employees of the channels, actions that have led some of them to cease updating their content and disrupted the normal flow of information out of them, according to one of their number, Baza (t.me/bazabazon/12731).

            Because of their lack of transparency in many cases and because the only people who can put up content on them are the administrators, many analysts in Russia and the West are suspicious about these channels; but ever more Russians are turning to them and reposting their messages as opposite web portals have been closed down.

            For a partial list of the channels the Russian authorities have attacked over the last two weeks, see kasparov.ru/material.php?id=62F496AC0828D&section_id=50A6C962A3D7C.