Telegram founder Pavel Durov gave a high-profile speech at a conference in Norway, where he publicly responded to accusations of ties to Russian intelligence services, discussed the platform’s operating principles, and announced new features, including AI integration.
Durov’s key statements:
On accusations of ties to Russia:
“I am Russian, but I would rather die than become someone’s asset. People who say this know very little about my life.”
Durov recalled his public confrontation with the Russian authorities during his time at VKontakte, which led to him losing his business, and his refusal to provide the FSB with Telegram’s encryption keys in 2017.
On freedom of speech:
According to Durov, Telegram is one of the few platforms that protects freedom of expression regardless of political views.
“We defended both Black Lives Matter and opponents of lockdowns. We refused to block even left-wing channels in France, despite pressure from the police.”
He also stated that he had received requests from the head of French intelligence to block conservative channels — and refused.
On his detention in France:
Durov was detained in Paris for four days — for no apparent reason, despite his French citizenship and open cooperation with the authorities.
“This was an unprecedented case — I was accused of crimes I did not commit and did not even know about. Simply because I created Telegram.”
On Telegram’s innovations:
The platform was the first to introduce many privacy protection tools: a message self-destruction timer, a PIN code, and mass chat deletion.
Telegram is open source and does not use American encryption algorithms, unlike WhatsApp, Signal, or Meta.
On blockchain and the future:
“We believe in decentralization. TON is the only scalable network capable of handling hundreds of thousands of transactions. We allow users to log into Telegram via a crypto wallet — without a phone number.“
On the platform’s position:
”Telegram is a neutral platform. We protect Ukrainians and Russians, Palestinians and Jews, leftists and rightists equally. We believe in human rights and freedom of choice.”
On the future of Telegram:
Durov announced the integration of artificial intelligence technologies into the app “in the coming days” and expressed his ambition to make Telegram the most popular messenger in the world.
“We have every chance of becoming the world’s number one platform. People want quality, transparency, and independence.”
Telegram currently has over 1 billion users and, according to Durov, could grow to 4 billion in the next decade.