Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2025-09-15 Origin: Site
Recently, a blockbuster news caused an uproar in the Russian foreign trade circle. According to reliable sources, on September 1, 2025, Russia will completely ban WhatsApp.
This move undoubtedly poses a huge challenge to foreign traders who have long relied on WhatsApp to communicate with Russian customers. But there are often new opportunities behind crises.
Interpretation of policy background
As early as June this year, Putin signed a presidential decree imposing restrictions on software from "unfriendly countries", and WhatsApp was included. WhatsApp has repeatedly refused to localize storage in Russia, and its operations are not transparent enough, and have been characterized as a risk to national privacy and security.
On July 18, Anton Gorelkin, deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Information Policy, issued a statement asking WhatsApp to prepare for its withdrawal from the Russian market. Subsequently, the Russian government quickly announced that WhatsApp would be banned nationwide from September 1, when all servers would be unusable.
In order to fill the market gap after WhatsApp's withdrawal, the Russian government simultaneously launched the MAX software developed by the local VK company, which is similar to the domestic WeChat, which has started grayscale testing in the spring of 2025 and currently supports Android and Huawei's HarmonyOS system.
From September 1, all new mobile devices sold in Russia will be compulsorily pre-installed with MAX software. Not only that, the Russian State Duma also amended the latest Administrative Code. During the period when WhatsApp was banned, users who tried to bypass the ban using VPNs, proxy tools, etc., would face fines of 50,000 rubles to 80,000 rubles (about $640-1,020).
The impact on Russia's foreign trade business
WhatsApp is extremely popular in Russia, with 68% of daily active users, and more than 60% of Russian businesses use it as their primary business contact tool.
For Chinese foreign traders, this means that after September 1, if communication channels are not adjusted in time, contact with Russian customers will be at risk of interruption, and customer relationships previously maintained through WhatsApp and ongoing order cooperation may come to a standstill.
For example, a foreign trade company recently communicated closely with a Russian customer about a large order, and all quotations and product details were discussed on WhatsApp.
However, due to the customer's mobile phone system update, the WhatsApp function was directly blocked, resulting in the message sent by the company showing "delivery failure", and the quotation was also sunk into the sea, and the customer seemed to "lose contact" in an instant, which brought great trouble to the company.
