Russian authorities have charged Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov with “aiding terrorism” and issued an international arrest warrant, accusing the encrypted messaging platform of failing to remove content allegedly used to coordinate attacks inside Russia.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced the charge on Wednesday, alleging that Telegram did not take down “channels, chats and bots” used by “Ukrainian special services and by terrorist and extremist organisations” to plan and coordinate attacks in Russia.
According to the FSB, the alleged activities included acts of “sabotage and terrorism, mass killings, and cyber-fraud operations”. The agency did not provide further details in its statement.
Durov and Telegram did not issue an official response to the charges. However, Telegram’s official account on X posted a photograph of Durov holding up his middle finger shortly after the announcement.
The move comes as Moscow steps up efforts to curb the use of Telegram and other messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, while promoting the state-backed MAX messaging service.
According to experts cited in the report, MAX openly states that it will share user data with authorities upon request and does not use end-to-end encryption, a security feature that ensures only the sender and recipient can read messages.
Russia has also blocked access to social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, while tightening restrictions on services such as YouTube.
Durov, who was born in Russia and now holds Emirati and French passports, co-founded Telegram in 2013. Before launching the platform, he founded VKontakte, Russia’s equivalent of Facebook, before selling his remaining stake in 2014 amid pressure from Russian authorities.
Durov has previously said he refused demands from Russian authorities in 2014 to provide access to the accounts of Ukrainian pro-democracy activists. Earlier this year, he said Russian authorities had opened a criminal investigation against him and accused them of using fabricated pretexts to restrict Telegram in an effort to “suppress the right to privacy and free speech”.
Separately, Durov is under investigation in France over allegations that Telegram failed to adequately tackle criminal activity on the platform and did not sufficiently cooperate with law enforcement requests. He has denied any wrongdoing.
