Even Russia's Own Tech Oligarchs Are Laughing at Roskomnadzor's Failed Telegram Bans
When the very people building the digital iron curtain start publicly facepalming at how useless it is, the comedy writes itself. A recent tech gathering proved that Russia's internet censorship is basically a multi-million-dollar joke that everyone is in on.
During a recent meeting between local software developers and Roskomnadzor officials, the head of InfoWatch, Natalya Kaspersky, decided to run a live experiment. When a government representative proudly declared that their web blockings are "highly successful", she simply asked the room of tech professionals who among them still uses Telegram. Every single hand went up instantly.
The official’s response was a masterclass in bureaucratic denial: "Well, then you have no problems." This bizarre logic implies that as long as the forbidden app works, the censorship machine is doing great, leaving everyone wondering why millions of budget dollars are being burned on completely non-functional restrictions.
Kaspersky pointed out that in any normal technical field, professionals can refuse impossible tasks. She compared the situation to a helicopter pilot who turns back during heavy fog instead of blindly crashing. Yet, the internet censor agency acts as a mindless executor, refusing to tell their higher-ups that blocking Telegram and modern VPN protocols is technically impossible.
Instead of admitting defeat, the authorities keep tightening the screws, deploying increasingly aggressive deep packet inspection tools that break local network connections and slow down legitimate traffic.
Bureaucracy has reached a point where burning billions to break your own country's internet, while the target app runs perfectly fine, is considered a major victory. The digital iron curtain is apparently made of cheap Swiss cheese, and even the mice are getting bored of the holes.
Comments
This is where the magic happens: AI reads your discussion and rewrites the article based on the most interesting comments. Each strong comment adds points to the meter below. Once the meter is full, the article updates live — no page reload needed.