Russia's FSB charges Telegram founder Pavel Durov
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Wednesday that it has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activities and issued an international arrest warrant for him, according to Reuters and AFP.
The FSB said the charges relate to Telegram's alleged failure to remove material "used by Ukrainian special services and terrorist and extremist organizations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass killings, and cyber fraud operations in the Russian Federation."
There was no immediate comment from Durov, who is currently in France, or from Telegram, CE Report quotes AGERPRES.
More specifically, the FSB accused the messaging platform of failing to remove the popular dating bot Leo Match, which Moscow claims was used by Ukrainian intelligence services to recruit young Russians into "terrorist and sabotage activities."
According to the FSB, 46 Russian citizens aged between 12 and 22 who used the Leo Match bot, which is banned in Russia, have been arrested in various Russian regions since July 2025 for allegedly attacking law enforcement officers and sabotaging energy and transport infrastructure.
The agency claims that all of them were contacted through Leo Match by operatives from Ukrainian intelligence services posing as young women, who allegedly pressured them into assaulting police officers and setting fire to infrastructure facilities.
Telegram, the encrypted messaging platform founded in 2013, says it has more than one billion users and is widely used in both Russia and Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly attempted to restrict Telegram in recent years while promoting its own state-backed messaging service, MAX.
Durov, who was born in Russia but now holds passports from the United Arab Emirates and France, founded the Russian equivalent of Facebook, VKontakte, before selling his remaining stake in 2014 amid pressure from Russian authorities.
Following his high-profile arrest after landing from a flight in August 2024, Durov, who became a French citizen in 2021, was charged in France two years ago with several organized crime-related offenses. French authorities mainly accuse him of failing to act against the spread of criminal content on his messaging platform, according to AFP.
He remains under strict judicial supervision, which prohibits him from leaving France without authorization from the authorities. Durov denies any wrongdoing.
Photo: Instagram
