Putin's WeChat Wager

In late May, lawmakers introduced an amendment to an existing draft bill that would lay the groundwork for a new instant messaging platform promoted by the government and endowed with privileges unavailable to competitors. President Vladimir Putin has endorsed the initiative.

Special privileges

The legislation would closely integrate the new messenger with government systems, enabling features no other platform can offer. For example, users would be able to certify documents with their electronic signatures. The messenger could even serve as a substitute for physical identification, acting as a surrogate for printed proof of age, eligibility for benefits, and educational credentials. Even private enterprises would be prohibited from rejecting the messenger’s identification and requiring paper documents instead. The bill’s proponents also aim to transition all parent–teacher online correspondence to the new messenger, linking these interactions to the state’s regional and federal systems. 

A state service, or not

The messenger would not replace Gosuslugi, Russia's existing digital government services platform. At the same time, it would serve as an alternative to Gosuslugi’s website and mobile app.

It remains unclear whether the state would run the new messenger itself. The legislation stipulates that the government would choose an organization to manage the new platform’s “creation and operation.” So, in theory, the project could be assigned to a private commercial company.

The bill requires the government to select a Russian company, ruling out foreign-registered firms like Telegram. To be eligible, companies must own a Russian social network with more than 500,000 users — platforms that are already required by law to monitor and censor their own content. In Russia, messenger apps must register separately in a database maintained by the Digital Development Ministry.

VK has entered the chat

The main contender to build the government’s super-app is VK — the company behind Russia’s most popular social network. At a cabinet meeting on June 4, Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadaev reported that VK has already developed a “fully Russian messenger” with technical capabilities that rival those of foreign competitors and even surpass them in certain areas, such as video calls. Shadaev also informed President Putin that VK built its messenger to integrate with external services — for example, encrypted bank-client communications.

VK presented a beta version of this new messenger, “Max,” in late March 2025. The platform’s specifications align with the criteria proposed in the State Duma’s legislation, and Max’s developers indicate that they intend to integrate it with government services. The app offers text messaging, voice calls, and video calls. It also has an integrated mini-application platform, chatbot constructors, and a payment system. 

VK’s Max project has drawn comparisons to WeChat, China’s “super-app,” which combines a messenger, social network, search engine, payment system, and many other functions. For example, you can use WeChat to order food, book tickets, make a doctor’s appointment, or even file for divorce. Most of these functions are implemented through mini-programs, of which there were more than a million by 2018. WeChat’s monthly global user base is estimated at 1.3 billion people. Most users reside in China, where WeChat dominates the market, as no other platform can offer as many integrated services.

WeChat has faced numerous allegations of censorship and user surveillance, and the push for a Russian equivalent has raised concerns that Max will adopt the same practices. VK’s role in the project exacerbates these concerns, given the company’s extensive history of collaboration with the Russian authorities.

Brace yourselves, Telegram and WhatsApp

The Russian authorities might eventually go so far as to block Max’s competitors. WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta, is already designated as an “extremist” organization in Russia, and state officials have directly threatened the messaging platform before. The only thing apparently stopping regulators from blocking access to WhatsApp is its enormous popularity in Russia, where it has 84 million daily users.

Telegram’s audience in Russia has surged during the war in Ukraine, reaching 68 million daily users. The company once openly challenged Russian state censorship, but it now avoids confrontations with the authorities. Telegram even walked away from a landmark case against Russia at Europe’s highest human rights court. 

At the same time, Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who co-founded VK in 2006, is likely less acquiescent to the Russian authorities than his former company has become.

Anton Gorelkin, first deputy of the State Duma’s Information Technology Committee, recently captured Telegram’s uncertain fate in Russia when he said that “extreme measures won't be necessary" against Telegram if the company “strives to comply with the laws of the country where it operates so actively.”

Vladimir Putin has entered the chat

At the meeting where Minister Shadaev pitched the super-app, President Putin embraced the idea and instructed his cabinet to “coordinate efforts to support the Russian messaging platform” by “migrating services currently offered by governmental agencies and financial institutions.”

A week earlier, Putin proposed “strangling” Western online services that still operate in Russia. Given the president’s rhetorical trajectory, the Kremlin is likely planning to accelerate the country’s forced replacement of foreign social networks with products the state can censor and monitor at will.