Pro-government Telegram channels have massively refused to register with the anti-Internet agency.
On November 1, a law came into force in Russia requiring bloggers with an audience of over 10,000 subscribers to register with Roskomnadzor. However, as the editorial staff of Virstka found out, the vast majority of pro-government Telegram channels with large audiences have not done so. Of the 82 popular pro-government channels in TGStat’s top-100 rating, only 10 have complied with the requirement of the new law.
The top five in TGStat’s popularity rankings are Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov, the z-channel Operation Z: Voenkory Russkaya Vesna, Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, and the Defense Ministry-affiliated Rybar channel. However, according to the oversight portal, none of them applied for inclusion in the register.
Among the other major channels with ties to the Russian authorities are the official resources of the government, the Defense Ministry, the Kremlin, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, and others. Of this list, only State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin has registered. In addition to him, z-bloggers Boris Rozhin, Daniil Bezsonov and Dmitry Nikotin, the head of the Safe Internet League Ekaterina Mizulina, as well as propagandists Margarita Simonyan, Armen Gasparyan and Dmitry Yevstafyev also met the new requirements.
“Wurstka” also analyzed the TGStat rating of channels covering the war in Ukraine. Out of 32 such resources with an audience of more than 10 thousand subscribers, only eight were included in Roskomnadzor’s register. In particular, Tsargrad, z-vonkor Yevgeny Poddubny and the channel “Turned on War” did not register.
According to the law, the registration process includes submitting an application via the state services portal, the Roskomnadzor website or a chatbot in social networks. Bloggers must provide contact details, links to the resource and confirm verification by fixing a unique number in the channel description. From 2025, unregistered channels will be subject to restrictions on advertising and reposts of their publications.
In early November, Kirill Khaykin, the author of the “Spirits Inside Out” Telegram channel, applied for inclusion in the register of bloggers and just six hours later received a summons to the military enlistment office requiring him to undergo a draft board.