Russia’s state telecommunications regulator said on Tuesday it had sent requests to Google and Apple asking them to remove the Telegram messenger service from their application stores, the Interfax news agency reported.

The watchdog, Roskomnadzor, said on Monday it had begun blocking access to Telegram, implementing a decision by a Russian court. 

Roskomnadzor also said on Tuesday it had told Amazon and Google a large number of their IP addresses are being blocked amid the move to block Telegram.

“We have currently informed both companies that a significant number of IP addresses located in the clouds of these two services have fallen under the block on the basis of the court ruling (to block Telegram),” the news agency quoted Roskomnadzor’s head Alexander Zharov as saying.

Roskomnadzor watchdog said on Monday it had begun blocking access to Telegram messenger after the company refused to comply with an order to give Russian state security access to its users’ secret messages.

- Reuters