Russia blocks WhatsApp, https://thehill.com/policy/international/5736203-russia-blocks-whatsapp-meta/.

> Officials in Moscow encouraged WhatsApp users to vacate the platform and use the state-sponsored Max messaging app instead.

How kind. They have developed a messenger for their own citizens.

By the way: it’s harder to block a decentralized messaging network. You can try #Matrix (see matrix.org), open source, self-hostable, free, end-to-end encrypted.