Pavel Durov has been declared internationally wanted — this was announced by the FSB. The founder of Telegram has been charged as part of a criminal case under the article on facilitating terrorist activities.
The agency noted that numerous channels, chats, and bots in the messenger are actively used by Ukrainian special services, terrorists, and extremists to prepare sabotage and mass killings on Russian territory. According to the FSB, all these groups on Telegram have still not been removed.
Recruitment via "Dayvinchik"
Ukrainian special services, according to the FSB's version, are recruiting Russians to commit sabotage and terrorist acts through a Telegram chat-bot called "Dayvinchik." It was through this channel that part of the crimes further reported by the agency were coordinated.
46 Detained
Over the course of a year, the FSB, together with the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, detained 46 people aged from 12 to 22. Arrests took place in several regions:
- Leningrad Oblast
- Chuvashia
- Altai Krai
- Moscow Oblast
- Ryazan Oblast
- Sverdlovsk Oblast
According to the investigation, all the detainees committed crimes on the orders of enemy special services. Among other things, they attacked law enforcement officers and acted as couriers, transferring money from deceived Russians to Ukraine.
Criminal Cases and Bot Blocking
The Investigative Committee initiated a number of criminal cases following the investigation. It was within the framework of one of these that Pavel Durov was charged under the article on facilitating terrorist activity and declared wanted.
Separately, the FSB reminded that back in late December 2025, the "Dayvinchik" chat-bot was added to Roskomnadzor's register of banned websites — due to the presence of materials with child pornography and LGBT propaganda (the movement is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation). Despite this, according to the agency, the illegal information from the bot has still not been removed.
The case on facilitating terrorist activity is a continuation of the Russian authorities' claims regarding Telegram's moderation policy, which have been voiced before. The founder of the messenger has not yet commented on the charges brought against him.
AI Opinion
From the perspective of machine data analysis, the conflict around Telegram fits into a much broader and long-standing dispute between nation-states and cross-border communication platforms. A similar scenario unfolded in 2024, when French authorities detained Durov on accusations of insufficient platform control over illegal content — at that time, it was about drug trafficking and fraud, not terrorism.
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