Russia has added Pavel Durov to its list of terrorists and extremists
Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, has been added to Rosfinmonitoring’s list of terrorists and extremists. His name is marked with a special asterisk on the list, indicating that a criminal case has been opened against him under a terrorism-related charge.
According to the Russian FSB, Pavel Durov was officially charged on July 29 with aiding terrorist activities.
The security service claims that Telegram’s administration allegedly fails to remove channels and bots which, according to the Russian side, are used to coordinate terrorist attacks and sabotage on Russian territory.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated against the messenger’s founder under Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Facilitation of Terrorist Activities”).
The FSB also stated that Pavel Durov has been placed on an international wanted list.
The entrepreneur himself has not publicly commented on the charges against him.
After the FSB’s announcement, Durov briefly changed his profile picture on his Telegram channel to an image of himself dressed as a terrorist, but soon deleted it.
In addition, the official Telegram account on social network X published an archived photo showing Pavel Durov giving the middle finger. This post subsequently attracted the attention of social media users as well.
This is evidenced by updated data from Rosfinmonitoring.
Prior to this, Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, was questioned again in Paris as part of an investigation into the platform’s possible involvement in criminal activity.
