[Erlich_Bachman]

If you know some basic things about Russian government, this can easily be explained by the fact that policy makers are very inefficient, incompetent in technical matters and more often than not decisions are very poorly researched. Just look at the fact that Telegram still works everywhere or the way that even the supposedly most secret russian organization (the secret military police GRU) have handled the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, and subsequent outage of the agent that did it... It seems that russian governemnt or police still have a hard time understanding even the basics of what the internet is and how the information can be shared or found or leaked in our age. So banning of Telegram vs not banning of Whatsapp really does not say a lot.

[lowdose]

On the other hand it could also be done on purpose in both cases you mention. Deliberately showing incompetence of your digital capabilities is a very efficient way of counter intelligence. The Skripal case was and is a very effective way for the Kremlin to spread fear. Vladimir Putin was most important person of the year for 5 years at Fortune while controlling a GDP of Italy. Vladimir Putin is maximizing the resources he has in a very good way irrespectively what one thinks about his actions and consequences specifically. As long as most people think incompetence every investment he makes will have a significant better outcome.

[Erlich_Bachman]

Well that is certainly a valid theory. Although I have a hard time believing that you have lived any long time in Russia recently or followed closely on the developments, because most people that do would not entertain that theory for more than a minute because it's quite clear that the level of incompetency and corruption in the government is insane. Putin sure has a lot of power, but it does not come from technical prowess or IT/infosec departments, it comes from sheer corruption and what is basically a military dictatorship structure of the country, where he is the one that has and is appointing most "friends" in/to the right places.