The Russian government has ordered all state and municipal employees to move their work communications to the domestically developed messenger Max, aiming for full adoption by 2030. The directive, dated July 9, was published on the official legal acts portal and flagged by RBC.
The multifunctional information exchange service is being built on the Max platform. Development and operation are handled by Kommunikatsionnaya Platforma, a subsidiary of the Russian tech giant VK.
A beta version of Max was unveiled in March 2025. Developers promised it would replace Telegram and WhatsApp for Russian users, as authorities have been attempting to block those services since summer 2025.
Max has not gained widespread popularity. One reason cited is the lack of user protections: the app does not offer end-to-end encryption, secret chats, self-destructing messages, or two-factor authentication.
On July 13, the European Union imposed sanctions on VK and Kommunikatsionnaya Platforma. By July 16, apps including VK, Max, Odnoklassniki, Dzen, and Mail.ru email had disappeared from Google Play and Huawei AppGallery. Max and other VK products had been removed from the App Store in late June.
Earlier, students and schoolchildren were widely pressured to install Max, and building-wide chats managed by housing companies were also migrated to the platform.