Russia’s state telecommunications regulator said on Tuesday it had sent requests to Google and Apple asking them to remove the Telegram messenger service from their application stores, the Interfax news agency reported.

The watchdog, Roskomnadzor, said on Monday it had begun blocking access to Telegram, implementing a decision by a Russian court.


A statement on its website said that telecoms operators have been sent a notification about blocking access to Telegram inside Russia.
The service, set up by a Russian entrepreneur, has more than 200 million global users and is ranked as the world’s ninth most popular mobile messaging app.
Roskomnadzor is implementing a decision handed down on Friday by a Russian court, which ruled that Telegram should be blocked because it was in violation of Russian regulations.
Telegram has repeatedly refused to comply with requests to give Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) access to its users’ encrypted messages.
The FSB has said it needs such access to guard against security threats such as terrorist attacks. But Telegram said compliance would violate users’ privacy.
Telegram’s founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, said the ban would damage the quality of lives of 15 million Russians and do nothing to improve Russia’s security.
“The terrorist threat in Russia will stay at the same level, because extremists will continue to use encrypted communication channels - in other messengers, or through a VPN,” he said.
“We consider the ban decision anti-constitutional and will continue to defend the right to secret correspondence for Russians.”
Durov was a pioneer of social media in Russia but left the country in 2014. He has since been a vocal critic of the Kremlin’s policies on Internet freedom.
Telegram is widely used in countries across the former Soviet Union and Middle East.
As well as being popular with journalists and members of Russia’s political opposition, Telegram is also used by the Kremlin to communicate with reporters and arrange regular conference calls with President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman.

On Monday, the spokesman’s office asked journalists who were previously subscribed to a chat in Telegram to switch to a chat that had been set up in a different messaging service, ICQ, which is part of the Russian Mail.ru technology group.