Relevant regulations will officially come into force in Russia on August 1, 2025, enabling mobile users to proactively submit applications to operators to opt out of receiving all types of bulk messages. The policy aims to crack down on spam SMS, but since the rules do not distinguish between marketing SMS and service notifications, it will have a significant impact on the local A2P SMS business. Users can submit applications via the operator’s app, personal account, or offline service hall, with the application taking effect the next day. This blocking is a full-scale interception that cannot filter out advertising SMS alone; only statutory notifications from government departments are exempt.
According to an industry article from Mindbox, the law has obvious shortcomings in terms of implementation: the regulation does not clearly define marketing A2P messages and transactional A2P messages such as verification codes, transaction alerts, and logistics notifications. To meet compliance requirements, operators will block all A2P traffic once they identify that a user has submitted an opt-out application, meaning important enterprise service SMS such as bank verification codes and appointment reminders may also be blocked. The implementation standards vary across operators, so enterprises cannot predict whether their SMS will be intercepted. Meanwhile, enterprises and SMS service providers cannot check whether a user has submitted an opt-out application, and there is no way to bypass the interception mechanism on the operator side.
To ensure customer reach, relevant enterprises need to build multi-channel messaging solutions such as email and in-app push notifications to deliver critical alerts. At the same time, some industries are subject to local regulatory constraints that prohibit the use of overseas instant messaging tools to transmit business information, posing additional restrictions on the selection of alternative channels. This new regulation has drastically changed the business environment of A2P SMS in Russia, and enterprises need to plan multi-channel communication solutions in advance to reduce the risk of business interruption caused by SMS interception.
