Russia's been actively trying to push their own Telegram replacement called 'Max', while throttling access to Telegram to discourage it's use.
They have outright blocked Telegram before (2018) because they refused to hand over users encryption keys to the FSB. That sparked outrage and protests because of it's widespread use, and was ultimately overturned because of it's heavy use even within the Russian government.
The more recent throttling has been causing huge struggles within their own military units because they've become dependent on it, as well as struggles with their ability to push propaganda outside Russia.