I’m not entirely certain (because Telegram is disrupted and it’s harder to get information from Russia), but I think this bears some relation to RosKomNadzor f**ing with Telegram and mobile internet in general, recently also in the Moscow region (arguably because the sky is full of Ukrainian drones, but perhaps for additional reasons).

Two political principles applicable to Russia:

• don’t take people’s alcohol away from them, sober people will do rational things
• don’t take Telegram, people depend on it and will be angry, possibly forgetting how to lie