The heads of all St. Petersburg executive bodies have been instructed to ban the use of foreign messengers for official communication, including popular applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram. This directive was issued by the Committee on Informatization and Communications and later conveyed to subordinate institutions as a categorical prohibition.
According to information from Fontanka, the letter signed by Committee head Julia Smirnova cited the need to prevent compromising, destroying, or modifying limited access information, as well as to prevent the occurrence of potential security incidents. In response, foreign messengers are encouraged to utilize the domestic corporate communications platform Express, which is endorsed as the only certified FSTEC of the Russian Federation Corporate Super App.
Developed by Moscow-based company Avlimede Production, owned by Andrei Vsatsky, the Express messenger has gained traction in large companies with tens and hundreds of thousands of users. The company reported a turnover exceeding a billion rubles in 2023 and has secured agreements for software licensing with various state organizations and institutions.
Source: Fontanka