Pavel Durov, the billionaire co-founder of Telegram, is facing terrorism-related charges as Russia moves to seek an international arrest warrant, the country’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Wednesday.
According to the BBC, the FSB claims Telegram’s management violated Russian laws by failing to remove numerous channels, chat groups, and bots from the messaging app that were used by Ukrainian secret agents and terrorist organizations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass murders, and cyber fraud in Russia.
The statement said the alleged crimes claimed the lives of numerous people, including women and children, and caused billions of rubles in losses..
Russian authorities say members of the Ukrainian secret services posed as girls on the platform to meet young men, sending them phishing links or asking them to provide the coordinates of their residences, public areas, shopping malls, and schools.
Durov reacted to the news by giving the middle finger to the Russian authorities on Telegram’s X page.
According to Reuters, Russia has attempted to restrict Telegram in the last few years, promoting the state-backed MAX messaging service instead. Despite this, state agencies themselves post on the Telegram platform daily.
Durov, who also holds Emirati and French passports, previously founded the Russian alternative to Facebook, VKontakte, but sold his remaining stake in 2014 because of pressure from Russian authorities.
