Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activities and issued an international arrest warrant for him. According to the FSB, the platform “Telegram: has not removed content that, according to Russian authorities, was used by Ukrainian special services and declared terrorist or extremist organizations to coordinate attacks, sabotage and cyber activities on Russian territory. Durov was born in Russia, but holds a French and United Arab Emirates passport.
He has frequently clashed with Russian authorities, as Telegram is one of Russia’s main communications platforms and local officials have repeatedly tried to block access or prevent its use by pressuring Durov to hand over user data or have Russians use another state-backed messaging platform.
The 41-year-old currently lives in France, where he is also facing investigations into allegations that Telegram did not take sufficient action against criminal activity on the platform and did not cooperate sufficiently with authorities. Pavel Durov rose to prominence in 2010 as the founder of VKontakte, popularly known as the “Facebook of Russia”, but left the country after pressure from the authorities to take control of the platform.
The Telegram messaging app, created in 2013, with over a billion users worldwide, has become one of the main sources of information during the war in Ukraine, both for the Ukrainian and Russian authorities.
