Paul Goble
Staunton, Mar. 9 -- Telegram channels, which have been relatively independent outlets at a time when other kinds of media have been subject to increasingly tight government control, are now under attack; and the Kremlin has launched this campaign as it so often has done in other cases by moving firt beyond the ring road with the all too obvious intention of expanding to the center later.
The harbinger of this effort was a decision taken last fall by the Lenin District Court in Smolensk Oblast to ban the Zygar telegram channel for its criticism of the war in Ukraine (leninsky--sml.sudrf.ru/modules.php?name=sud_delo&srv_num=1&name_op=case&case_id=187630306&case_uid=c9ca22a3-2112-46e5-8618-e811533da0eb&delo_id=41).
The Russian government agency which maintains the list of banned groups ha snot yet added the Zygar channel (verstka.media/mikhail_zygar_da_zygar_zapret_news), but Moscow clearly intends to treat it as banned and that has sparked concern that all independent telegram channels are now at risk (t.me/kolezev/16059 reposted at echofm.online/opinions/v-rossii-sudya-po-vsemu-vpervye-czelikom-zapreshhen-telegram-kanal).
Such fears have intensified this week given that Russian officials have banned and blocked telegram channels in the North Caucasus, a move that has sparked protests from Chechen officials as being irrational and unnecessary (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/03/08/vlasti-dagestana-priznali-blokirovku-telegram-v-regione-news, novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/03/08/vlasti-dagestana-priznali-blokirovku-telegram-v-regione-news and themoscowtimes.com/2025/03/10/chechen-official-decries-prejudiced-telegram-ban-in-north-caucasus-regions-a88303.)
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