Most of the respondents had problems accessing the Internet on their mobile phones and problems with messengers. It made life difficult for half of them in one way or another. On the issue of support for blocking calls in foreign messengers, society is divided almost equally: a slightly larger part supports this decision, but almost as many do not support it. Supporters of blocking justify their support by “fighting scammers,” while opponents justify their support by “inconveniencing communication with family, friends, and work.” About half of the respondents support Internet censorship in principle because of dangerous sites and materials, and a third oppose Internet censorship. WhatsApp (owned by Meta, which is recognized as an extremist organization in Russia and banned) and Telegram remain the most popular messaging and calling applications. Today, about 6% of Russians use the national messenger MAX.
Over the past month, the majority of respondents have experienced problems accessing the Internet on a mobile phone – 71%, and problems with messengers – 63%.
The proportion of those who have experienced problems accessing the Internet by mobile phone over the past month is higher among young people under 24 (82%), residents of cities with a population of 500,000 or more (79%), residents of the Southern and North Caucasian Federal Districts (82%), residents of the Northwestern Federal District (80%), those who believe that things in the country are going the wrong way (82%), those who disapprove of the activities of the current president (81%).
The proportion of those who have not experienced problems accessing the Internet on a mobile phone in the last month is higher among older respondents (36% among respondents aged 55 and older), residents of Moscow (50%), residents of the Central Federal District (37%), and those who believe that things are going well in the country. in the right direction (30%), those who approve of V.Putin’s work as President (28%).
[1]
[2]The share of those who have experienced problems with messengers over the past month is higher among young people under 24 (77%), respondents with higher education (71%), residents of cities with a population of 500,000 or more (71%), residents of the Southern and North Caucasian Federal Districts (76%), residents of the North-Western Federal District (71%), those who believe that things in the country are going the wrong way (73%), those who disapprove of the activities of the current president (75%).
The proportion of those who have not experienced problems with messengers over the past month is higher among older respondents (41% among respondents aged 55 and older), respondents with secondary education and below (39%), residents of Moscow (40%), residents of the Far Eastern and Ural Federal Districts (44% and 41%, respectively), those who believe that things in the country are going in the right direction (34%), those who approve of the activities of V. Putin as president (33%).
[3]Problems with Internet access from a mobile phone and problems with messengers caused difficulties in daily life for about half of the respondents (53% and 50%, respectively) who encountered them.
Internet access problems complicate life more often for women (56%), young people under 24 (67%), respondents with higher education (62%), those who believe that things in the country are going the wrong way (59%), those who disapprove of the current president (62%), those who do not support the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine (57%), those who believe that peace negotiations should now proceed (55%).
Internet access issues do not affect the lives of men (52%), older respondents (56% among those aged 55 and older), respondents with secondary education and below (55%), those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (50%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (48%), those who support the actions of the Russian Armed Forces (50%), and those who believe that military operations should continue (56%).
[4]
[5]Problems in the work of messengers complicate life more often for women (53%), young people under 24 (63%), respondents with higher education (57%), those who believe that things in the country are going the wrong way (57%), those who disapprove of the activities of the current president (61%), those who do not support the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine (56%), those who believe that peace negotiations should now proceed (54%).
Internet access problems did not affect the lives of men (54%), older respondents (59% among those aged 55 and older), respondents with secondary education and below (58%), those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (52%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (51%), those who support the actions of the Russian Armed Forces (52%), and those who believe that military operations should continue (58%).
[6]There is no clear opinion in society on the issue of support for blocking calls in WhatsApp* and Telegram applications: 49% of respondents support this decision of Roskomnadzor (including 25% – “fully support”, and 24% – “rather support”), 41% of respondents do not support (23% – “absolutely not they support it”, and 18% – “rather do not support it”).
Older respondents (56% of respondents aged 55 and older), respondents with secondary education and below (53%), rural residents (57%), and those who believe that things in the country are going in the right direction are more likely to support Roskomnadzor’s decision to block calls to WhatsApp* and Telegram (55%), those who approve of V.Putin’s activities as president (52%), those who trust television as a source of information (61%), those who support the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine (55%), those who believe that military action should now continue rather than move to peaceful negotiations (63%), and also, those who do not use messengers (62%).
The respondents who do not support Roskomnadzor’s decision to block calls on WhatsApp* and Telegram are more often young people under 24 (63%), those with higher education (49%), those who believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction (61%), those who disapprove of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (67%), those who trust YouTube channels as a source of information (65%), those who do not support the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine (68%), those who believe that it is now necessary to move to peace talks rather than continue military action (46%), and those who use messengers (47%).
[7]
[8]Those who support Roskomnadzor’s decision to block WhatsApp* and Telegram calls primarily justify their support for the need to fight fraudsters (56%).A quarter (24%) believe that this ensures the safety of people (teenagers, the elderly), one in five (19%) believes that this is how the fight against terrorism and state security work.
Those who do not support Roskomnadzor’s decision to block WhatsApp* and Telegram calls justify their opinion by saying that it “interferes with life, work, and communication with relatives” – 42%, “it’s useless, it won’t help, scammers will still find a way to deceive people” – 28%, “violation of rights and freedoms citizens, interference in personal life” – 9%.
[9]
[10]Also, in the framework of the survey, respondents were asked to choose one of the points of view about Internet censorship that is closer to them. Thus, about half of the respondents agree that there are many dangerous sites and materials on the Internet, which requires the introduction of censorship. The share of respondents who share this opinion has decreased by 11 percentage points since September 2012. They believe that the dangers on the Internet are overestimated, and in any case, censorship on the Internet should not be introduced., a third of the respondents (34%), the share of such respondents, on the contrary, has increased by 15 percentage points since September 2012.
The respondents who most frequently believe that internet censorship is necessary due to the abundance of dangerous websites and content are women (57%), older respondents (55% among those aged 40-54; 54% among those aged 55 and older), those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (56%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (54%), those who trust television as a source of information (58%), those who support blocking calls on WhatsApp* and Telegram (66%), those whose lives have not been affected by problems with messaging apps (54%) or whose lives have been somewhat complicated (53%).
Most frequently, the view that censorship on the internet is unacceptable is held by men (41%), young people under 24 (45%), those who believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction (48%), those who disapprove of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (54%), those who use the internet daily (38%), those who trust YouTube channels as a source of information (64%), those who do not support blocking calls on WhatsApp* and Telegram (51%), those who have encountered problems with messaging apps in the last month (39%), those whose lives have been seriously complicated by problems with messaging apps (58%).
[11]
[12]WhatsApp* remains the most popular mobile application for calls and messaging among Russians, with 70% of respondents using it. In terms of the share of users, Telegram has almost equaled it – 62%, whose audience continues to grow steadily (by 61 percentage points since February 2016), while the number of Viber users is decreasing, now only 4% of respondents use it (a decrease of 19 percentage points since September 2024). Every fourth person exchanges messages and calls on VKontakte – 25% (an increase of 7 percentage points since March 2025). The new MAX messenger is currently used by 6% of respondents, and 3% each use Yandex.Teleconference, Zoom.us , and the same number are called Skype for old times’ sake, 2% each use Instagram direct* and Discord.
Different age groups prefer to use different messaging and calling apps. Thus, young people under 24 are more likely to use Telegram – 91%, Discord – 9%, Yandex.Teleconference – 6%, Instagram direct* – 6%, FaceTime – 4%. Respondents in the age group of 25-39 years are more likely than other groups to exchange messages and calls on WhatsApp* – 81%, VKontakte – 40%, MAX – 8%.
In general, the level of messenger use decreases with the age of the respondents: if almost all 100% of respondents under the age of 24 use messengers, then 97% in the age group of 25-39 years, 88% in the age group of 40-54 years, while only 62% in the age group of 55 years and older.
*belongs to Meta, which is recognized in Russia as an extremist organization and banned
[13]
[14]METHODOLOGY
The survey by the Levada Center was conducted August 19 – 27 2025, among a representative sample of all Russian urban and rural residents. The sample consisted of 1613 people aged 18 or older in 137 municipalities of 50 regions of the Russian Federation. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The distribution of responses is given as a percentage of the total number. The data set is weighted by gender, age, level of education for each type of settlement (large cities, medium cities, small towns, villages) within each Federal district independently, in accordance with Rosstat data.
The statistical error of these studies for a sample of 1600 people (with a probability of 0.95) does not exceed:
3.4% for indicators around 50%
2.9% for indicators around 25%/75%
2.0% for indicators around 10%/90%
1.5% for indicators around 5%/95%
Learn more [15] about the methodology