Russia Charges Pavel Durov with Facilitating Terrorism, Issues Arrest Warrant

Russia has charged Telegram CEO Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activities and issued an international arrest warrant against him. The Federal Security Service (FSB) claims that Telegram's failure to remove extremist content, child pornography, and channels used by Ukrainian intelligence for sabotage has led to the charges.

The FSB stated that Telegram is used by 'Ukrainian special services and by terrorist and extremist organisations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass killings, and cyber-fraud operations within the Russian Federation.' This move comes amid global pressure on the encrypted messaging app, which has billions of users despite restrictions.

Pavel Durov denies wrongdoing, stating that maintaining Telegram's privacy policies and refusal to grant backdoor access are matters of strict principle. The arrest warrant has led to a significant drop in the price of Gram (previously Toncoin) token, with it falling more than 3% in the past few hours.