Russia adds Telegram founder Pavel Durov to "terrorists and extremists" list

Russia's Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) has added Telegram founder Pavel Durov to its list of terrorists and extremists shortly after the Federal Security Service (FSB) placed him on its wanted list.

Source: Meduza, a Latvia-based Russian news outlet

Details: According to Russian media, the asterisk next to Durov's name on Rosfinmonitoring's updated list indicates that a criminal case has been opened against him on charges of facilitating terrorist activities.

The day before, the FSB had placed Durov on its international wanted list and accused the Telegram founder of facilitating terrorist activities. The accusations are linked to the messaging app's alleged failure to remove content banned in Russia and to restrict the operation of channels, chats and bots that Russian authorities claim are used by Ukrainian intelligence services.

Durov has not officially commented on the allegations. However, a few hours after the FSB's announcement, he changed the profile picture on his Telegram channel to an image depicting himself as a terrorist before later removing it.

Subscribe on Patreon to back our journalism long-term.