Telegram founder Pavel Durov declared wanted in terrorism facilitation case

The Federal Security Service charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with an article on facilitating terrorist activities and declared him internationally wanted, the agency reported.

According to the FSB, the messenger's administration for a long time did not delete channels, chats, and bots that were actively used by foreign intelligence services to prepare terrorist attacks. Crimes committed with the help of Telegram led to numerous victims, including women and children, and caused multi-billion dollar damage.

Particular attention in the agency's statement was paid to the dating service "Dayvinchik", integrated into Telegram. Employees of foreign intelligence services, posing as girls, met young Russian men through this service and fraudulently drew them into terrorist activities.

Since July 2025, 46 young users of "Dayvinchik" have been detained in 16 regions of Russia, who, on the instructions of their handlers, attacked police officers and committed arsons. As noted by the FSB, crimes committed with the help of Telegram, including through dating services, led to numerous victims and caused multi-billion dollar damage.

Even if Telegram is recognized as an extremist platform, using it will not entail criminal liability, by analogy with Meta* services, said Fyodor Kravchenko, managing partner of the "Collegium of Media Lawyers", on RBC. Advertising campaigns (which are implemented in Telegram by government customers, among others — editor's note of "Pervy Tekhnichesky") are still ongoing, the expert noted. Nevertheless, he advises caution when making transactions on the platform (buying Telegram stars, Premium subscriptions), as it is not yet known whether such actions will be qualified as sponsoring terrorism.

On the eve of the FSB's statement, on July 28, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov noted that the Russian authorities maintain contacts with Telegram's leadership regarding the restoration of access to the messenger. According to him, significant progress has not been achieved, as Telegram's leadership does not show much activity.

Read more on the topic:

• State Duma proposed to unblock Telegram
• Telegram accumulated fines of 100 million rubles: Moscow courts summarized the first half of the year
• Pavel Durov wrote a chanson about bypassing blocks and a "living internet"