Russia charges Pavel Durov with aiding terrorism, adds him to wanted list
Russia's FSB security service has charged Pavel DurovDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, founder of Telegram, with facilitating terrorism and moved to place him on an international wanted list (July 2026).
The charge. Under Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of Russia's criminal code, the FSB alleges that Telegram's refusal to remove channels devoted to "mass killings" and cyber fraud caused "numerous human casualties" and billions of roubles in damage, and accuses Durov of failing to take down channels and bots used to coordinate attacks and sabotage inside Russia.
Durov's response. He called the case "a sad spectacle of a state afraid of its own people" and said the Kremlin keeps inventing "new pretexts" to restrict Telegram in Russia. Telegram argued Moscow's real aim is to push users onto MAX, a state-backed messenger it described as "engineered for mass surveillance and censorship."
Backdrop. Russia began restricting Telegram in the summer of 2025 and opened a criminal case against Durov in February 2026. Durov is separately fighting a criminal case in France following his 2024 arrest near Paris. He holds French and Emirati citizenship and is not expected to be handed to Moscow, so the wanted-list move reads as a signal rather than a route to a courtroom.
Read more: The Next Web
