Russia charges Telegram founder Pavel Durov with ‘aiding terrorism’

Russia’s FSB says Telegram has not pulled content used by Ukrainian intelligence and ‘terrorist’ groups to plan attacks.Published On 29 Jul 202629 Jul 2026Russian authorities have charged Pavel Durov, cofounder of the encrypted messaging platform Telegram, with “aiding terrorism” and issued an international arrest warrant for him.Russia’s FSB security agency announced the charge against Durov on Wednesday, saying his company failed to take down “channels, chats and bots” used by “Ukrainian special services and by terrorist and extremist ⁠organisations” to prepare and coordinate attacks in Russia.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Russia restricts calls on WhatsApp, Telegram as internet control tightenslist 2 of 3Telegram CEO Pavel Durov hits out at ‘misguided’ arrestlist 3 of 3Russia jails French researcher Laurent Vinatier for three yearsend of listThose attacks included acts of “sabotage and terrorism, mass killings, and cyber-fraud operations”, said the FSB.There was no official comment from Durov or Telegram, but Telegram’s official account on X posted a photograph of Durov holding up his middle finger after the charge was announced.The Russian charge comes as Moscow...