Russia’s FSB has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activity and placed him on an international wanted list. The Russian security service claims that the messenger does not remove channels, chats and bots allegedly used by Ukrainian intelligence services.
This was reported by Russia’s Interfax, citing the FSB.
Durov was charged under Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code. The FSB said that the Telegram administration does not remove resources used to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorist attacks in Russia.
The Russian security service claims that this concerns numerous channels, chats and bots allegedly used by Ukrainian intelligence services, as well as terrorist and extremist organizations. The FSB also links them to mass killings, cyber fraud, casualties and material damage.
Russia began restricting Telegram’s operation in August last year. In February, Roskomnadzor said that the service allegedly continued to fail to comply with Russian law and that the restrictions would therefore remain in place.
According to Russian law enforcement agencies, Telegram has been fined more than 100 million rubles in Russia since the beginning of the year. Most of the fines were imposed for failing to remove content banned in Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously said that contacts on restoring Telegram’s operation were continuing, but that the messenger’s representatives were not showing sufficient activity.
