Moscow’s Blocking of Telegram Costing Pro-Kremlin Media More It is Opposition Outlets, Preliminary Figures Show

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 20 – Preliminary figures show that Moscow’s decision to block Telegram channels is costing pro-Kremlin media outlets more viewers than it is opposition ones, according to Alesya Sokolova, a Cedar researcher who also writes on data issues for Novaya Gazeta Europe.

            Indeed, it is fair comment, she suggests, to say that “opposition media have suffered significantly less [from this Kremlin action against Internet channels] than are pro-regime ones” (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/03/20/provlastnye-media-postradali-ot-blokirovok-telegram-v-dva-raza-silnee-chem-oppozitsionnye-news).

            After the blocking began in earnest, Sokolova says, the number of views of pro-government channels fell by 23 percent from its earlier averages, those of regional outlets by 25 percent, but those of opposition sites only ten percent, exactly the opposite of what the Kremlin clearly hoped for.

            On the one hand, as she suggests, these are only preliminary figures concerning 15 pro-government sites, 14 opposition ones, and 105 regional channels. Many factors are at work and over time the numbers could shift in directions more favorable to the Kremlin than these initial ones are.

            But on the other hand, these numbers do suggest that the Kremlin may be shooting itself in the foot once again by its policies and highlight the fact that those already viewing opposition sites are either living abroad or more loyal to the sites they have been looking at than are those who rely on government ones.

            For more on these changes, see both Sokolova’s Cedar research (t.me/research_for_democracy/324) and additional Novaya Gazeta Europe coverage (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/03/21/issledovanie-blokirovki-telegram-udarili-po-provlastnym-media-v-dva-raza-silnee-chem-po-oppozitsionnym-bolshe-drugikh-postradal-solovev-news).