WhatsApp not working in Russia: what was restricted and when

If your WhatsApp messages go out with a delay, photos won’t load, and calls never connect, your phone is most likely not to blame. Since August 2025, Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications regulator, has been restricting the messenger step by step, and in February 2026 the Kremlin confirmed that a decision to block it had been made. Below we explain why WhatsApp is not working in Russia the way it used to: the dates and official wording, our October 10, 2026 measurement from Russian and foreign networks, and what you can try.

Why WhatsApp isn’t working: a timeline of restrictions

The restrictions were not introduced all at once but in stages, and Roskomnadzor (RKN) accompanied almost every stage with a statement. Dates and quotes come from news agencies and business media.

• August 13, 2025. RKN announced that “measures are being taken to partially restrict calls” in WhatsApp and Telegram. According to the regulator, the messengers had become “the main voice services used to deceive people and extort money,” and were also used to draw Russian citizens into sabotage and terrorist activity. “No other restrictions on their functionality are being introduced,” RKN added (Interfax).
• October 22, 2025. The regulator confirmed that it was still partially restricting both messengers. According to RKN deputy head Oleg Terlyakov, fraudulent calls fell by 40% in the month after calls were restricted (Interfax).
• November 28, 2025. RKN said that “WhatsApp continues to violate Russian law,” that restrictions would be introduced in stages, and that if the requirements were still not met, the messenger “will be fully blocked” (Interfax). According to Vedomosti, in late November users began complaining that their messages were not being sent.
• December 22, 2025 and January 15, 2026. The regulator first repeated that the restrictions would continue (Interfax), and then said it “sees no grounds for lifting the restrictions” (Vedomosti, citing TASS).
• February 11–12, 2026. The whatsapp.com domain disappeared from Russia’s National Domain Name System (NSDI), CNews reported. RBC, citing Kommersant, specified that whatsapp.com and web.whatsapp.com had been removed from the system, while the technical domain whatsapp.net and the wa.me short-link service remained in it for now. On February 12, as RIA Novosti reported, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said of the block that “such a decision was made, and it was implemented” “due to Meta’s unwillingness to follow the norm and letter of Russian law” (its activities in Russia are banned as extremist by a court ruling of March 21, 2022; the ruling does not apply to WhatsApp).

The same day, WhatsApp itself said on social media that trying to isolate over 100 million users from private and secure communication is a backwards step (Euronews). As of October 10, 2026, no news of the restrictions being lifted had come our way.

WhatsApp and Meta: what the court decided in 2022

WhatsApp belongs to Meta. On March 21, 2022, a Moscow court banned Meta’s activities in Russia, recognizing the company as an extremist organization, and the Moscow City Court upheld the decision on June 20, 2022. However, as Interfax clarified, the ban covered Facebook and Instagram as social networks, and the messenger falls outside the ruling: in the agency’s wording, WhatsApp “carries out no public dissemination of information.” How the ruling affected Instagram is covered in our article why Instagram won’t open in Russia.

So today’s WhatsApp restrictions are not a continuation of that court ban. RKN explains them by saying the messenger fails to meet Russian legal requirements on preventing and stopping crimes, and in February 2026 the Kremlin linked the block to Meta’s own position.

What our October 10, 2026 check showed

We tested the www.whatsapp.com home page and the web.whatsapp.com web version through Globalping, a public network of measurement points: four measurements between 23:15 and 23:17 UTC, 16 checks, 13 of them from Russia. Network types (home or data center) follow Globalping’s own labeling. Our server abroad also requested both addresses directly, without a VPN connection. We did not log in, send messages or make calls.

Is WhatsApp fully blocked? What still works

• Calls. RKN announced the restriction of calls specifically and separately, on August 13, 2025. We did not test calls themselves.
• Messages and media. According to CNews, until February 11, 2026, the messenger still worked for many people without any special tools, although messages arrived late and media files loaded slowly. After that, WhatsApp stopped working for one of the outlet’s staff members both on mobile data and on wired internet.
• The web version. In our measurement, the web.whatsapp.com page loaded in 3 of 6 checks from Russia, so the complaint “WhatsApp Web won’t open” doesn’t hold for every network. We did not test QR-code login or chats.
• The technical domain and short links. According to RBC, whatsapp.net and wa.me stayed in the NSDI in February 2026. What this means for the app on your network can’t be determined from this data.

WhatsApp not working: what to do yourself

• Make sure it isn’t a malfunction. If other websites and apps open but WhatsApp hangs while connecting, this matches the picture from our measurement rather than a broken phone or router. Reinstalling the app or clearing the cache is unlikely to help: in our checks the connection dropped before the server sent the page.
• Compare networks. In our measurement the result depended on the network, so mobile data and home Wi-Fi may behave differently.
• Test a foreign address. From abroad, both WhatsApp pages opened in our measurement. How to try this for free is explained below, after WhatsApp’s terms.

What WhatsApp’s terms say

WhatsApp’s terms don’t use the word “VPN,” but two passages are worth knowing in advance. In the “Other” section, users agree that they “will not disguise [their] location through IP proxying or other methods.” This sentence sits in a clause on export control laws and restricted countries; the clause does not name Russia, and we don’t know how WhatsApp applies it to users in Russia. In the “Acceptable Use Of Our Services” section, under “Our Terms And Policies,” it says that if you violate the terms or policies, WhatsApp may take action on your account, “including disabling or suspending your account.” The quotes are from the version of the terms effective January 4, 2021.

A free week: WhatsApp through a foreign Liberum VPN location

You can find out how WhatsApp behaves with a foreign address without paying: the first 7 days of Liberum VPN are free, and the trial doesn’t require a card. There are three foreign locations: the Netherlands, Germany and Georgia. We can’t guarantee the result, since we did not open WhatsApp with Liberum VPN turned on. It may work in your case, and checking costs nothing. The steps: open the Liberum VPS bot, get trial access, choose one of the foreign countries, insert the link you get from the bot into a client app (Happ works), connect, and open WhatsApp. Everyone connected to that country shares the same address. The service’s features and prices are listed on the page Liberum VPN for users in Russia.

What we don’t promise

• That WhatsApp will work through our location. We did not test it through a Liberum VPN connection. We got code 200 from Oracle in the Netherlands and Hetzner in Germany, from a home network in Kazakhstan, and from our server abroad without a VPN.
• That calls and file sending will work. We checked only two pages, not calls, chats or attachments.
• That your account won’t be banned. WhatsApp’s terms allow it to disable or suspend an account for violations; the clause on IP proxying and location is quoted above.
• That the connection will work equally well on every network. Why VPN connections sometimes drop out is the subject of our piece why VPNs stop working.
• That the restrictions will be lifted soon. In January 2026, RKN said there were no grounds for that, and in February Peskov allowed for an agreement only if Meta complies with Russian law: “If the Meta corporation fulfils this and enters into dialogue with Russian authorities, then we have the possibility of reaching an agreement” (Euronews). We make no forecasts.

Key takeaways

• Roskomnadzor has been partially restricting WhatsApp calls since August 13, 2025, and the rest of the messenger in stages since late November 2025.
• On February 11–12, 2026, whatsapp.com and web.whatsapp.com disappeared from the NSDI, and the Kremlin confirmed that the decision to block had been implemented.
• The 2022 court ruling on Meta does not extend to WhatsApp; the restrictions are imposed on other grounds.
• On October 10, 2026, the whatsapp.com home page failed to load in every one of the 7 checks from Russia, and the web version opened in 3 of 6; from abroad, both pages opened.
• WhatsApp’s terms allow accounts to be suspended for violations, and a clause on export control asks users not to disguise their location through IP proxying.
• A foreign Liberum VPN location can be tested at no cost for 7 days; the outcome isn’t guaranteed.