PDB Afternoon Bulletin | February 25th, 2026: Iranian Students Clash With Regime Militias & Moscow Targets Telegram
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It's Wednesday, the 25th of February. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, protests are erupting across Iran for the fifth straight day as university campuses turn into flashpoints between anti-regime students and pro-government militias. You have to really admire the courage of these protesters after the regime murdered demonstrators by the thousands during the most recent uprisings. I'll have the details. Later in the show, the Kremlin may be preparing its biggest digital crackdown yet, as Russian security services float terrorism allegations against the founder of the country's most popular messaging service.
That would be, of course, Telegram. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. Protests are erupting in Iran once again, and for the fifth straight day, university campuses across the country have turned into battlegrounds. The unrest began on Saturday as students returned to in-person classes at the start of a new academic term. What began as memorial gatherings for classmates killed during January's brutal crackdown has now evolved into open confrontation between anti-regime activists and pro-government militias. Clashes have now been reported in Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, and Mashhad. At the University of Tehran and in the Iran University of Science and Technology, video footage shows pro-regime students, or at least people purporting to be students, many are believed to be affiliated with the Basij militia, a volunteer force, of course, tied to the IRGC, and shows those individuals chasing and beating protesters.
Students opposing the regime have chanted death to the dictator, referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and quote, for everyone killed, a thousand will follow. In a symbolic act of defiance, some have burned the Islamic Republic's flag and raised the pre-1979 lion and sun flag. It's a direct rejection of the clerical regime that came to power after the revolution. Pro-government counter-protesters have responded by waving Iranian flags, chanting, God is great, and burning American and Israeli flags, that's original, accusing foreign powers of fueling the unrest. Now, it's worth noting how this differs from the January countrywide demonstrations. Those protests did not begin on university campuses.
They began in markets and commercial centers, driven primarily by economic grievances, inflation, sanctions pressure, and collapsing currency.
What are the latest developments in the Iranian student protests?
Only later did campuses become involved. This time, the spark appears to be ideological. Students are organizing memorials, openly challenging the legitimacy of the regime, mocking Ayatollah Khamenei, and in some cases calling for the restoration of the monarchy. nearly five decades after the 1979 revolution. That shift matters. Economic protests threaten stability. Ideological protests challenge authority itself. For now, the protests appear largely confined to university campuses and have not yet spilled into broader street demonstrations. but their persistence is significant. Universities in Iran have historically served as incubators for wider political movements, most notably during the 1999 student protests and again during the 2009 Green Movement.
Authorities are walking essentially a tightrope. A 2000 law technically restricts police and military forces from entering campuses without authorization, a safeguard enacted after security forces stormed dormitories during the 1999 unrest. However, students report increased surveillance, disciplinary suspensions, text messages barring them from campus, and involvement by plainclothes security personnel. And the timing is particularly sensitive. Iran's leadership is simultaneously navigating high-stakes nuclear negotiations with the U.S., with talks scheduled in Geneva later this week. President Trump has warned that, quote, really bad things will happen if Tehran refuses a deal. And U.S. military assets, of course, have been building up across the region.
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