Russia's Federal Security Service formally charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activity on July 29 and placed him on an international wanted list, escalating a criminal case that first surfaced in February. [1]
The FSB charged Durov under Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of Russia's Criminal Code, alleging that Telegram refused to remove channels and bots used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies and extremist organizations to coordinate sabotage and terrorist attacks inside Russia. [1] The agency claimed a Telegram chatbot named "Daivinchik/Leo" was used to recruit Russian citizens, including minors, into sabotage activities through deception and psychological manipulation. [2]
A conviction carries up to life in prison. No comment from Durov or Telegram had been issued as of filing. [1]
The charges land while Durov already faces a separate criminal investigation in France, initiated in August 2024 over allegations that Telegram failed to counter criminal activity on the platform. French authorities arrested Durov at Paris's Le Bourget Airport and barred him from leaving the country; those travel restrictions were eased in 2025. [2]
Two governments, two legal theories, one target. The Russian case uses terrorism statutes motivated by Telegram's refusal to cooperate with intelligence demands. The French case focuses on moderation failures under French law. The combination boxes Durov's movement in ways that don't require either jurisdiction to formally extradite him.
Durov himself recognized the pattern in February 2026, when he disclosed that Russia had opened a criminal case. "Each day, the authorities fabricate new pretexts to restrict Russians' access to Telegram as they seek to suppress the right to privacy and free speech," he wrote. "A sad spectacle of a state afraid of its own people." [1]
The legal theory — that a platform founder bears criminal liability for content he did not moderate — is structurally identical to arguments applied against Tornado Cash developers. The threshold for what counts as "facilitation" expands with each conviction that goes unchallenged.
Telegram's more than 1 billion users make it the last major Western-adjacent platform still operating inside Russia with meaningful penetration. When technical blocking failed and Telegram kept growing, the state moved to the founder. [1]
-- KATYA VOLKOV, Moscow