A Criminal Case Has Been Opened Against Durov In Russia

The Telegram founder is accused of "promoting terrorist activity."

Russian law enforcement authorities are investigating Telegram founder Pavel Durov as part of a criminal case for promoting terrorist activity (part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code), Rossiyskaya Gazeta (RG) and Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP) reported, citing FSB materials. The articles claim that Telegram "has become the main tool of the special services of NATO countries and the 'Kiev regime'" amid the war. "The illusion of anonymity has brought armies of radicals, drug addicts, murderers and terrorists to the messenger, which has begun to form threats to our society," RG stressed.

According to the publications, since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Russia has recorded more than 153,000 crimes using the messenger, of which 33,000 are sabotage-terrorist and extremist, including the organization of explosions, arson of military recruitment centers and murders. In particular, nine high-ranking servicemen, including Lieutenant Generals Igor Kirillov, Yaroslav Moskalik and Fanil Sarvarov, were killed in terrorist attacks coordinated through Telegram. In addition, the messenger was involved in the organization of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall and in the murder of Darya Dugina, the articles said.

At the same time, as noted by KP, Telegram failed to comply with Roskomnadzor's demands to remove 154,981 channels, chats and bots, among which 104,093 concerned inaccurate information, 10,598 - calls to extremism, 7,405 - court decisions, 4,168 - justification of extremist activity. In this regard, the Russian authorities decided to restrict the messenger's work in Russia and have currently slowed it down by 55%, RG specified.

The fact that Roskomnadzor began blocking Telegram became known on February 10. The agency explained it by the fact that the messenger does not comply with Russian legislation and does not ensure the safety of citizens. At the same time, Roskomnadzor stressed that they slow down Telegram "by decision of authorized bodies."

With this background, FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov said that negotiations with Durov in the past "did not lead to anything good" and are not currently underway. "He pursues his vested interests, which are ultimately realized by the presence of a large number of offenses - as child crime, which we constantly talk about, terrorist acts, sabotage," Bortnikov said.

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