The Vladimir Putin administration in Russia is now pushing for Russians to use the state-backed 'national messenger' MAX, sparking concerns of Kremlin surveillance.
This comes after Meta's WhatsApp received a blanket block for allegedly failing to "comply with Russian law", according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov also added that the move against WhatsApp—which follows months of pressure on Meta—took place because the popular messaging app was allegedly being used to "organise and carry out terrorist acts on the territory of the country, to recruit their perpetrators and to commit fraud and other crimes", amid Moscow's war with Ukraine.
Meta has claimed that the move aimed to forcibly move more than 100 million of its users in Russia to a "state-owned surveillance app".
What is MAX?
MAX is a messaging application developed by Russian company VK in 2025, which has been touted as a 'super app', as it offers a number of non-messaging uses as well.
The app's website has said that apart from regular messaging operations with a file size limit of 4 GB, MAX also has a built-in mini-app platform, chatbot builders, and a payment system.
Social media, digital ID, electronic signatures, and Gosuslugi—a digital platform for municipal services in Russia—have also been integrated into the app, said to be developed with the intent of creating an official messenger service for Russia, such as China's WeChat and South Korea's Kakao Talk.
Why not Telegram?
The state-backed push for MAX after the WhatsApp block has also prompted another question: why not switch to Telegram instead?
This is likely because despite being Russian-built, commonly used for broadcasts, and with a 2 GB file size limit for free users (and 4 GB for paid users), Telegram also promises user privacy at the forefront, as a result of which it also often throttled or blocked by Russian authorities.
There is also the fact that MAX is, by design, a 'super app', due to which it has been pushed by the Kremlin as an alternative to apps dedicated to messaging alone.
