State-Sanctioned Dissent: Russian Leftist Activists Rally Against Call Blockades on Messaging Apps

In a rare manifestation of state-sanctioned opposition, left-leaning organizations across various Russian cities are staging demonstrations against government-imposed limitations on voice and video calls through WhatsApp and Telegram.

These protests follow last month’s announcement by Roskomnadzor, Russia’s state communications regulatory body, which stated that it would be limiting calls on both messaging platforms to “combat criminal activity.”

Protesters, primarily from Marxist-Leninist factions that are independent of the officially recognized Communist Party, argue that these measures infringe upon their constitutional rights to free communication.

The inaugural protest occurred on Sunday in Voronezh, a city in the southwest, where approximately 80 individuals assembled after the local Marxist organization successfully secured a permit. The demonstrators also expressed their opposition to Max, a government-supported messaging application promoted as a domestic substitute for WhatsApp and Telegram.

The Russian Communist Party (of Internationalists), another leftist organization, has announced a series of similar demonstrations scheduled for the upcoming Sunday in Novosibirsk, Omsk, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Siberia and the Far East. So far, only Omsk’s authorities have granted them permission. The group is still awaiting approval from Moscow officials for a protest set for September 13.

Meanwhile, the official Communist Party, which occupies a minority of seats in the Russian parliament, held its own protests against the call restrictions last month in Novosibirsk.