In an unusual instance of government-sanctioned opposition, leftist organizations in various Russian cities are staging demonstrations against the government’s limitations on voice and video calls via WhatsApp and Telegram.

These protests follow an announcement from Roskomnadzor, Russia’s state communications regulator, which revealed last month that it would be restricting calls on these two messaging platforms as a measure to “combat criminal activities.”

Protesters from non-official Marxist-Leninist factions assert that these limitations infringe upon their constitutional right to free communication.

The initial demonstration took place on Sunday in Voronezh, a city in the southwest, where approximately 80 individuals gathered after the local Marxist organization secured a permit for the event. The participants also expressed their disapproval of Max, a state-sponsored messaging app portrayed as a local substitute for WhatsApp and Telegram.

Another Marxist group, the Russian Communist Party (of Internationalists), has declared intentions to hold similar protests this upcoming Sunday in the Siberian and Far Eastern cities of Novosibirsk, Omsk, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. So far, only Omsk’s authorities have granted permission for the protests, while the group is still waiting for approval from Moscow for a demonstration scheduled for September 13.

Additionally, the official Communist Party, which holds a minority representation in Russia’s parliament, conducted its own protests against the call restrictions last month in Novosibirsk.