Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov stated at the EEF that correspondence in any messengers is "transparent" for law enforcement, they have no problem accessing correspondence in any of the existing messengers. "We must understand that any messengers are an absolutely transparent system. And people who use them must understand that they are all transparent. For special services, of course," said Putin's press secretary.
Earlier, Peskov advocated for keeping Telegram and WhatsApp in Russia to create competition for Max, the national messenger created at Vladimir Putin's request. He noted that restricting the functionality of foreign services will not help eliminate fraudsters, who will simply move to the domestic platform, which is already happening.
On August 13, Roskomnadzor blocked calls on WhatsApp and Telegram under the pretext of fighting fraudsters and involving Russians in "subversive activities." All officials and public sector employees were instructed to switch to Max, which became mandatory for pre-installation on all gadgets sold in the country from September 1. At the same time, the service's privacy policy states that it reserves the right to collect user data and transfer it to government agencies, including the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.