Kremlin cyberpower? How fight over messaging app is showing its limits.

Kremlin forces appear to be badly losing their latest war, but it isn't in Syria or Ukraine.

It's in cyberspace, where Russia's communications watchdog Roskomnadzor this week began trying to block the popular messaging app Telegram because its encoded services are allegedly “terrorist friendly.” Since the app has consistently refused to hand over its encryption keys to law enforcement, it has been a target of official ire for at least three years.

But Roskomnadzor appears to have brought a sledge hammer to a knife fight, and so far its efforts to hit Telegram have created massive collateral damage among business and official websites. Meanwhile millions of Russians – including Kremlin officials and

Pavel Durov and the KremlinDigital whack-a-moleThe trouble with Telegram