Russia has formally charged Pavel Durov, the founder of the messaging app Telegram, with facilitating terrorism, alleging that the platform has been used by Ukrainian secret services for recruitment and coordination of hostile activities inside Russian territory.
The Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, accused Telegram of being employed “to prepare and co-ordinate acts of sabotage and terror” within Russia. The agency further claimed that the platform had failed to remove channels, chats, and bots being used by Ukrainian operatives, prompting the legal action.
An international arrest warrant has now been issued for the Russian-born billionaire, who currently resides abroad.
Shortly after the charges were announced, Telegram’s official account on X posted an image of Durov raising his middle finger—a gesture widely interpreted as a defiant response to the Russian authorities. Durov has previously accused Moscow of “fabricating new pretexts to restrict Russians’ access to Telegram.”
The app remains hugely popular in Russia, with tens of millions of active users, despite ongoing government efforts to restrict access as part of a broader crackdown on internet freedoms. Telegram is also widely used in Ukraine, where it has become a critical communication tool during the war.
Durov, 41, is a multi-billionaire who has lived outside Russia for many years. He currently holds both French and United Arab Emirates (UAE) passports. It remains unclear whether other countries or international law enforcement agencies would comply with an arrest warrant issued by Russian authorities.
Durov originally left Russia in 2014 after refusing government demands to shut down opposition communities on the platform. He had previously founded VKontakte, Russia’s largest social media network, often described as the “Facebook of Russia.”
Telegram now serves approximately 950 million users worldwide and has long positioned itself as a platform prioritizing user privacy over the more aggressive content moderation policies adopted by other global tech giants. The company has faced persistent criticism over its moderation practices but has consistently denied allegations of inadequate oversight.
This is not the first legal trouble Durov has faced over the platform. In 2024, he was arrested in France and placed under formal investigation over allegations that Telegram had failed to properly moderate its content to curb criminal activity. He was released months later, though the French investigation remains ongoing.
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