Russia's domestic security service accused Telegram's founder of failing to remove channels and bots used for sabotage and terrorism. Russia's Federal Security Service said Pavel Durov had been charged with aiding terrorism and placed on an international wanted list. The FSB alleged that Telegram failed to remove channels, chats and bots used by Ukrainian intelligence, terrorist and extremist organizations; those assertions were not independently adjudicated.
The agency said 46 users of a dating chatbot had been detained since July 2025 in cases involving arson, assaults and other alleged offenses. Durov previously said Russian authorities were fabricating reasons to restrict Telegram and suppress privacy and free expression.
Telegram did not immediately respond to AP's request for comment; the company is based in Dubai, where Durov, a French and Emirati citizen, lives. A conviction in Russia could bring a life sentence, but Durov was outside Russian custody and the practical reach of the wanted notice was uncertain.
Russia has blocked or throttled several foreign social platforms and promotes a domestic messaging service that critics say is more accessible to state surveillance. Telegram is not uniformly end-to-end encrypted; its private chats, channels and optional secret chats use different technical and governance models.
Durov has also faced a separate French investigation concerning illicit platform use, demonstrating that government claims against a platform can arise under different laws and evidence. As of the edition cutoff, The FSB did not publish a complete evidentiary file, and no independent court had tested the current allegations. The available reports distinguish measurements and attributed claims from conclusions that had not yet been established. Where officials supplied numbers, those figures remain subject to revision as agencies reconcile records and publish later updates. Subsequent records may therefore change the totals without changing the initial chronology. The next factual records to examine are Telegram's formal response and any international notice and new Russian restrictions or attempts to compel app-store and network compliance.