Russia Brands Telegram Founder Pavel Durov a 'Terrorist' Amid Ongoing Crypto Row
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has been designated as a 'terrorist' by Russian authorities, he claimed in a recent post on his platform. This move comes after Russia's Federal Security Service accused Durov of facilitating terrorist activity and failing to remove channels used by terrorist groups and Ukrainian intelligence services.
Russia had previously launched a criminal investigation against Telegram in February, alleging that the messaging platform left nearly 155,000 channels, chats, and bots online despite claims they violated Russian laws covering extremist content, terrorism, drug trafficking, and other illicit activity.
Durov has denied any wrongdoing, arguing that he refused government demands for mass surveillance and censorship on Telegram. He also stated that Russia had barred him from 'publishing information on the Internet', adding that authorities had 'got confused about who can ban whom from the Internet.'