Reuters Videos <\/p>\n
Tue, May 12, 2026 at 2:55 AM EDT <\/p>\n
STORY: Natalia Kukovinets has had to switch messaging apps repeatedly to stay in touch with her customers.The dog clothing entrepreneur is one of the many small business operators in Russia struggling with the Kremlin\u2019s growing internet restrictions.Limits on popular apps like Telegram, tighter VPN controls, and mobile internet shutdowns have created serious problems for such companies. For Kukovinets\u2019 Wag\u2019n Tails brand, Telegram was the only source of sales after Instagram was blocked in 2022 and WhatsApp in February.But that channel is under pressure too: “Now, with the Telegram ban, it has become harder to track incoming requests. It does not work without a VPN turned on, and notifications often do not come through. There are also problems with loading images. Moreover, some apps do not work properly when a VPN is on, while Telegram requires it. All of this leads to communication delays.”She is not alone in her troubles. Countless small businesses and self-employed Russians depend on messaging apps.Moscow restaurant Skrepka said a restrictions-linked glitch in April blocked online orders for its iced Easter cakes.Manager Daria Teterina said a surge in orders crashed their Telegram bot for an hour.Customers could not load the QR codes needed to collect their cakes, which sparked angry complaints.:: ArchiveThis week, the Kremlin said it would not compensate businesses for losses caused by its recent mobile internet shutdowns in Moscow.President Vladimir Putin insists such restrictions are necessary for national security.There is no official data on the economic impact of the various internet curbs.But a recent survey found that more than two-thirds of Russians believe the limits have made daily life harder.One Moscow property broker said messages were often delayed in the city center, slowing responses and making communication harder. He says the disruption causes inconvenience, and leads both agents and clients to lose money.While the full economic cost of the restrictions is unclear, it seems unlikely that access to messaging apps will return to normal any time soon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reuters Videos Tue, May 12, 2026 at 2:55 AM EDT STORY: Natalia Kukovinets has had to switch messaging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9315,9316,9314,5,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-17849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-internet-restrictions","9":"tag-internet-shutdowns","10":"tag-messaging-apps","11":"tag-russia","12":"tag-telegram"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}