The Telegram messenger, which had initially announced its intention to resist the Russian power's injunction to block the legislative voting instructions of the opponent Alexeï Navalny, finally deleted these instructions on Saturday.
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Russian telecoms gendarme Roskomnadzor on Monday demanded the blocking of a robot (bot) on Telegram, through which voters could obtain instructions to vote for the candidates best placed in each constituency to beat those in power.
Kremlin blackmail
Messaging, founded by Russian Pavel Dourov, explained that he wanted to “
limit the operation of bots linked to electoral campaigns
” on his service.
Mr. Durov explained to him that he was only following Apple and Google, which "
dictate the rules of the game for developers like us
".
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The American giants Apple and Google also complied with these instructions on Friday by removing from their stores the application of Mr. Navalny, the opposition accusing them of "
giving in to the Kremlin's blackmail
".
On Telegram, Mr. Durov underlined that the giants of the Internet had asked “
already this year
” to his service to remove contents violating the laws of certain countries, under penalty of being withdrawn from their stores.
He said that “
the blocking of applications by Apple and Google sets a dangerous precedent that will affect freedom of expression in Russia and around the world
”.
Voting instructions
As almost no candidate genuinely opposed to Vladimir Putin has been allowed to run for the legislative elections, Mr. Navalny's supporters have set up a so-called “
smart vote
” strategy
, intended to support the candidate - often communist - best placed to defeat that of the party in power, United Russia.
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In the past, this tactic had met with some success, especially in Moscow in 2019, and the authorities have worked in recent months to block all access to these voting instructions.
Mr. Navalny was imprisoned and his movement classified as "
extremist
" and banned.
After the Telegram bot disappeared, Mr. Navalny's supporters took to Twitter, posting links to documents on Google Docs containing voting instructions.
According to the allies of Mr. Navalny, Google on Saturday demanded the deletion of these documents following a request from Roskomnadzor, threatening to delete it.
The legislative but also local elections in Russia started on Friday and will last until Sunday evening.