Russia Announces: International Arrest Warrant Issued for Telegram Founder

Russia's Federal Security Service announced on the 29th (Wednesday) that it has indicted Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the messaging platform Telegram, on charges of 'assisting terrorism' and issued an international arrest warrant.

The Federal Security Service stated that the charges relate to Telegram's failure to remove certain content, which 'has been exploited by Ukrainian intelligence agencies and terrorist and extremist organizations to plan and coordinate acts of sabotage, terrorism, mass killings, and cyber fraud within Russia.'

According to Reuters, France is also investigating Durov. French authorities accuse Telegram of insufficient efforts to combat criminal activities on its platform and inadequate cooperation with law enforcement requests. Durov has denied any wrongdoing.

Born in Russia, Durov founded Telegram in 2013, left Russia in 2014, relocated to Dubai in 2017, and moved Telegram's headquarters to Dubai. In 2021, Durov acquired French citizenship.

Telegram is one of the primary social media platforms used in Russian-speaking regions. Since the full-scale escalation of the Ukraine crisis in February 2022, both Russia and Ukraine have used Telegram as a major channel for disseminating information, with some analysts referring to the platform as the 'online battlefield.'