Telegram Reigns Supreme Among Russian Lawmakers as Switch to State-Backed Max Messenger Falters

Despite a Kremlin order encouraging a shift to the state-supported messaging app Max, Russian lawmakers continue to favor Telegram as their primary means of communication with the public, according to a study referenced by the Kommersant business daily on Friday.

Research conducted by the consulting firm Polilog revealed that members of the ruling United Russia party boast the highest total following on Telegram, with approximately 4.8 million subscribers combined.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, also affiliated with United Russia, ranks first among deputies in terms of average views and reposts of his posts.

Trailing behind him are New People party leader Alexei Nechaev, his deputy Vladislav Davankov, and Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR).

On average, posts from lawmakers of the New People party attract around 31,000 views each, significantly higher than the average of 11,200 views for United Russia deputies.

Posts from LDPR and A Just Russia lawmakers receive around 11,400 and 10,600 views on average, respectively.

The report also indicated that about a quarter of the deputies share only text-based messages on Telegram, while 55% mix text with images and 20% post videos. Approximately 116 deputies share short video clips (known as «circles»), and only 23 utilize voice messages. When it comes to reposting content across different platforms, Telegram remains their preferred option.

These findings emerge as the Russian government intensifies its campaign to promote Max, a “national messenger” intended to replace Western-owned applications.

In August, the state communications regulator Roskomnadzor began imposing restrictions on calls made through Telegram and WhatsApp.

Simultaneously, the presidential administration directed lawmakers and officials to transition their official communication channels to Max and establish a “priority information system” there, according to reports from the exiled news outlet Vyorstka.

The initiative is supervised by the state-sponsored organization Dialog, which manages regional communication centers that communicate with citizens on behalf of the authorities.

On August 13, Duma Speaker Volodin announced the creation of his channel on Max, and parliamentary press offices soon alerted journalists that official statements would henceforth be made exclusively on this new platform.

Messages in Duma Telegram chats during that period suggested that updates would cease on Telegram, although most lawmakers seem to have disregarded this guideline in practice.