Russia's main domestic security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with aiding terrorism and issued an international warrant for his arrest. The 41-year-old Russian-born billionaire, who holds French and UAE passports and lives in the Gulf, has also been added to a blacklist of terrorists and extremists, which essentially bans him from conducting transactions inside Russia.
The FSB alleges that Durov failed to remove numerous channels, chats, and bots used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies, as well as terrorist and extremist organizations. According to the agency, these platforms were actively used to coordinate acts of sabotage, terrorism, mass murder, and cyberfraud across Russia. The Kremlin has been struggling to curtail the app's use as Ukraine strikes deeper into Russian territory.
If convicted, the entrepreneur could face up to life in prison. These charges are seen as the latest step by the Kremlin to bring the internet and digital communications under its control following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The charges reflect an ongoing fight over one of the most popular messaging apps in the country.
Durov has called the case politically motivated, accusing Russian authorities of fabricating pretexts to restrict access to Telegram in an attempt to suppress the right to privacy and free speech. Soon after the charges were announced, Telegram's official account on X posted an image of Durov making an obscene gesture.