Russia Bans Telegram, Millions Of Google and Amazon IPs

Friday, April 13, 2018, Russia’s Federal telecommunications service, Roskomnadzor, placed a ban on the popular app, Telegram.

Why the ban? Telegram messages are encrypted for privacy and their servers are spread throughout the world.In September of last year, China placed a similar ban on the popular WhatsApp.

According to the post on BleepingComputer, Roskomnadzor banned the Telegram app because Telegram refused to provide Russia’s main intelligence service with their customer’s encryption keys.

Its was a smart decision by Telegram not to hand over their customer’s encryption keys. Apparently Telegram is a pretty smart bunch as they found a (temporary) way around Russia’s ban.

Telegram moved some their servers to the cloud. They used Amazon and Google cloud servers, effectively providing service to their Russian users over the weekend.

This didn’t last long though. In a response to Telegram’s bypassing of their ban, Russia also banned 1.8 million Google and Amazon IP address.

The addresses that Russia banned are:

52.58.0.0/15
18.196.0.0/15
18.194.0.0/15
18.184.0.0/15
35.156.0.0/14
35.192.0.0/12

As you can imagine, blocking 1.8 million Google and Amazon IP addresses had some side effects. Users reported that some apps and online games are no longer accessible.

Personal privacy is a big concern. Hats off to Telegram for not giving in. Lets hope it lasts.