Really. It's a constant fight between Telegram and the not-so-great Russian Firewall. There are actually public channels you can join in Telegram that run a tally of Telegram IPs blocked by Roskomnodzor.
We even had a speaker advertise a telegram channel for everyone I was there with to talk to each other, and the Russian audience laughed to his amusement. I didn't get the joke; kind of funny now.
I still never ended up using it, have too many messaging apps as it is. It's really sad how much that can limit staying in touch with international friends though.
I still never ended up using it, have too many messaging apps as it is. It's really sad how much that can limit staying in touch with international friends though.