Democracy Dies in Darkness
Opinion

How a tech company prevailed against the state in Putin’s Russia

The website of the Telegram messaging app is displayed on a computer screen in Moscow in 2018. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

Alexander Baunov is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center and editor in chief of Carnegie.ru.

In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, is it possible for a private technology company to defy the state and win an unequal battle? It seems unlikely, but that is what happened Thursday when the Roskomnadzor, the state communications watchdog better known for blocking sites and social media, announced it was lifting a ban on the popular Telegram messaging app.