They are look-through by the government. Part of the family lives outside of Russia, and I don’t want to put anyone back in the country into any compromising situations because of any innocent comments someone could make, since all of us are not the fans of the current government, which right now could be a criminal offense.

So no, I absolutely won’t use Russian messengers.

Wow,.lots of detailed information! Looks very helpful. Thank you, I bookmarked it and will read this weekend.

Thank you for the detailed answer and overview of the different options! To clarify about Signal: in order to confirm a new account, Signal sends an SMS with a code to the registered number. In Russia, you cannot receive those messages since maybe 2 years ago. So all existing users are fine, but the new users can’t register an account.

Edit: typos

Thank you!

Spot on haha. I doubt they have time to read every single snail mail, but I won’t ever write anything important in a snail mail sent to Russia.

Looks promising, thank you!

Wow, thanks a lot! I’ll look through the options!

Good point, thank you very much!

I’m looking for something to have a family chat with, not to run a terrorist organization:) It’s quite risky via official Russian apps that are look-through, but as long as the content of messages and calls is secured, it should be fine even if the channel itself can be identified. As of now, the usage of messaging apps per se is not prosecuted.

Thank you very much.

However, the problem is that Signal needs phone number registration and sends confirmation via a blocked phone number. When users are registered, it works reliably, but new users in Russia cannot register without a non- Russian phone provider.

Thank you! I’ll look into your recommendations and will figure out what’s more realistic/reliable. And thanks for the wishes, too!

Thank you! I might try, but I’ll need like 3 different sims for my family members - if nothing else comes up, I’ll go this route.