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The last weeks have seen a noticeable stream of near-identical stories from Russian regional outlets advising readers to remove Telegram from their phones by March 31. Those pieces, published in cities such as Kirov, Lipetsk, Samara, Yoshkar-Ola, and Chelyabinsk, mixed vague cybersecurity warnings with practical tips about freeing up storage. At the same time, the pro-Kremlin tabloid Baza ran a separate claim that iPhones were failing because installed VPN apps were overheating processors. This wave of content arrived while the Russian state was imposing restrictions on Telegram, creating a context in which technical claims overlap with political pressure. Meduza worked with the fact-checking project Provereno Media to trace the origins and logic behind these repeated alerts.
How the warnings spread across regional media
Most articles followed a nearly identical structure: a headline urging deletion, a short explanation of hypothetical risks, and generic advice to clean or remove messaging apps. One example, the regional outlet Kubanskie Novosti, framed the message as a concern from unnamed “lawyers and cybersecurity specialists,” warning that chats can accumulate sensitive information like passwords and banking details. The reporting rarely cited named experts or provided technical evidence, nor did it clarify where the March 31 deadline originated. Journalistic tracing shows these local pieces appear to derive from an earlier article published by the Far Eastern outlet PrimPress, which first ran on February 11 and advised users to delete certain messengers before spring.
The PrimPress origin and timeline
The initial PrimPress report gave three reasons: that messengers might face functional issues under increasing regulatory pressure, that unused services can be a vector for scams during peak travel and shopping periods, and that message histories can fill device storage. After authorities began limiting Telegram’s operation in early March — following earlier reports by RBC and The Bell that a full block was intended by April 1 — PrimPress published a revised version on March 18 that removed the shopping-season argument but kept the security recommendations. Multiple regional outlets then republished or rewrote the PrimPress copy, amplifying the same talking points.
Who is publishing these messages and why
The publishing trail points to outlets with direct or indirect links to regional administrations. Public business records from the SPARK database show that PrimPress is owned by Viktor Staritsyn, who became an adviser to Primorsky Krai Governor Oleg Kozhemyako in 2019. Kubanskie Novosti is known to be owned by the regional administration that it serves. Other papers carrying the same copy have clear pro-government leanings or focus heavily on local officialdom. The consistency of structure, recurring recommendations, and simultaneous circulation across distant regions suggest the items were not isolated editorial choices but part of a coordinated messaging effort aimed at discrediting Telegram while the platform was being restricted.
Baza and the VPN overheating narrative
Alongside the regional push, the tabloid Baza ran a story on March 24 claiming that iPhones were overheating and failing because users left VPNs running overnight. The piece described a scenario where people left their circumvention tools active to avoid missing messages, then charged the phone with the VPN still on — a sequence the article blamed for processor strain. The technical explanation in the report was opaque and lacked independent verification. Baza itself became part of a larger media consolidation when it was absorbed into the empire of Yuri Kovalchuk in the fall of 2026, a fact that colors how its reporting is perceived.
Separating technical fact from influence
Technically, neither the blanket deletion advice nor the overheating claims have solid publicly available evidence behind them. The arguments in the repeated articles do not cite forensic analysis, court rulings, or detailed vendor statements. Experts say the warnings appear tailored to less tech-savvy users and rely on fear rather than demonstrable legal or engineering realities. At the same time, Telegram channels remain one of the few major alternatives to state-controlled outlets in Russia, and their progressive restriction has made them a target for parallel messaging strategies. Notably, none of the republished articles pushed readers toward the promoted national messenger Max, which has already been flagged for potential surveillance and remains widely distrusted by many users.
In sum, the combination of synchronized regional copy, opaque sourcing, and sensational technical claims looks less like independent consumer advice and more like a complementary campaign to the state-led throttling of a major communication platform. Readers are advised to treat these warnings with skepticism, verify technical claims against reputable cybersecurity sources, and be alert to possible coordination between local media and official actors when coverage is unusually uniform.