Telegram refuses to cooperate with the Russian police in combating drug propaganda. This was stated by Kirill Smurov, acting head of the Main Directorate for Drug Control, at a meeting of the presidium of the Public Council under the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

According to him, in addition to the darknet, Telegram is often used to involve teenagers in drug-related crimes. Smurov noted that Yandex independently removes such content if it finds it or receives information from the police. Telegram, however, does not respond and does not share information, emphasized the representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Statistics

Since 2022, 153,000 crimes committed using Telegram have been registered in Russia. Among them are the organization of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, the murders of Daria Dugina, Maxim Fomin (Vladlen Tatarsky), and nine high-ranking military personnel, including the head of the RHBZ troops, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov.

Earlier, Roskomnadzor sent more than 150,000 requests to the team of the messenger's founder Pavel Durov* demanding the removal of illegal content, but they were ignored.

Context

On July 30, Rosfinmonitoring added Durov* to the list of terrorists and extremists. In Russia, he is accused of aiding terrorist activities, and an international search procedure has been initiated. According to the FSB, the Telegram administration did not remove numerous channels, chats, and bots used by Ukrainian special services and terrorist organizations. The messenger owes over 45 million rubles in unpaid fines in Russia.

* - included in the list of terrorists and extremists