The Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia communicated this Wednesday that it has filed a terrorism charge against the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, considering that he did not remove from the platform channels and users used by Ukrainian services to coordinate attacks and sabotage actions against the country.
According to Russian authorities, Durov has become part of their international wanted persons registry. The creator of Telegram, born in Saint Petersburg 41 years ago, currently resides in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, where the main offices of this messaging service are located.
The FSB has detailed that Ukrainian services have used "numerous" channels, chats, and users "to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass murders, and cyber fraud in Russia," which would have caused "numerous victims" and "multibillion-dollar material damages."
In February, Russian authorities had already warned that Telegram, whose access began to be restricted in August 2025, continued to not comply with the country's regulations. As a consequence, since the beginning of this year, Russia has imposed economic sanctions on the platform of up to 100 million rubles (1.1 million euros) for not removing content considered illegal by Russian legislation.
This is not the first time that the company and its founder face legal problems. In 2024, Durov was arrested in France, although he was released shortly after, for not having stopped the activity of criminal networks operating on Telegram to commit crimes such as drug trafficking, child abuse, and fraud.
Durov continues to be under investigation in France, where he must periodically appear before the authorities. He obtained provisional release after paying a bail of 5 million euros.