Over 52,000 crimes have been committed on WhatsApp and Telegram since the beginning of the year.

More than 52 thousand offenses committed in WhatsApp messengers (owned by Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) and Telegram have been registered by law enforcement officials since the beginning of this year — the amount of damage from these offenses amounted to more than 106 billion rubles. This was announced on August 14 by Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy and federal coordinator of the Digital Russia party project.

"Law enforcement agencies are recording an increase in remote fraud via WhatsApp and Telegram: since the beginning of 2025, more than 52 thousand crimes have been registered, the total damage has exceeded 106.4 billion rubles," he told TASS.

According to Nemkin, it is through these messengers that Russians are contacted in order to attract them to commit sabotage on transport, to carry out bombings or arson.

Squabbling call: why Russia has restricted calls in messengers

Reducing the functionality of Telegram and WhatsApp* will protect users from fraudsters, Roskomnadzor believes

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Izvestia on July 18 that the WhatsApp messenger is obliged to comply with the laws of the Russian Federation. Later, on July 27, the head of the State Duma Committee on information Policy, Sergei Boyarsky, commenting on rumors about the possible blocking of WhatsApp, called them questionable.

On August 3, the Department for Combating the illegal use of information and Communication Technologies (UBK) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation classified WhatsApp and Telegram as one of the most popular messengers for committing crimes - during the week of July 28 to August 3, a total of 727 offenses were committed in them in the Russian Federation, while on the VKontakte social network — 19, and in Odnoklassniki — one.

On August 13, the press service of Roskomnadzor informed Izvestia about the partial blocking of WhatsApp and Telegram, which is necessary to counter intruders. The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media in Russia noted on the same day that access to call services in these messengers will be unblocked when the messengers comply with Russian legislation.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.