By Mark Trevelyan
Feb 11 (Reuters) - Russia’s curbs on the messaging app Telegram could affect battlefield communications as well as prevent soldiers from keeping in touch with their families, critics charged on Wednesday in an angry backlash against the latest restrictions.
The state communications watchdog, which began limiting voice and video calls via the app last August, said on Tuesday it would impose further curbs because of a lack of action by Telegram to counter criminal and terrorist activity.
Some users have complained that the app has been noticeably slower this week.
In short video appeals, three men purporting to be members of a Russian anti-drone unit said Telegram was vital to their work and urged the watchdog not to interfere with it.
Sergei Mironov, leader of a pro-Kremlin parliamentary party, posted a link to the appeals and said soldiers’ lives could be at stake.
“The guys are shedding blood there, they need normal communication, and besides Telegram, they often have nothing,” he wrote. “Don’t deprive them of what helps them fight the enemy and keep themselves alive.”
Speaking separately to reporters, Mironov berated those responsible for impairing the app’s performance as “idiots”.
Telegram is a hugely popular channel for public and private communications in Russia and has long been the dominant platform for information - and disinformation - about the war in Ukraine.
USEFUL TOOL FOR FRONTLINE SOLDIERS
Russian military commentators have frequently described it as an important communications tool for frontline soldiers, though the Kremlin said it was sceptical about this.
“I don’t think it’s possible to imagine frontline communications being provided via Telegram or some other messaging service,” its spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters.
He referred further questions to the Ministry of Defence, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the western Belgorod region which has frequently been struck by Ukrainian drones, said he was worried the latest moves could make it harder to deliver important safety announcements to residents.
“I’m concerned that the slowdown could impact the delivery of operational information to you if the situation worsens,” he said, urging people to register with the state’s rival MAX messaging system.
Critics say the authorities have clamped down on foreign-based platforms, also including Meta’s WhatsApp and Apple’s FaceTime, as a way of forcing people to adopt MAX, which they fear will be used by the authorities as a surveillance tool. State media have dismissed such concerns.
Telegram’s Russian-born founder Pavel Durov said the app would remain committed to protecting free speech and user privacy “no matter the pressure”.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov said the communications watchdog was simply doing its job.
“We can only express regret here; there’s nothing good about this, but the law must be followed,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Dmitry AntonovEditing by Gareth Jones )
