Russia Declares Telegram Founder Pavel Durov an International Fugitive Over Terrorism Charge

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activity and issued an international warrant for his arrest. The FSB, the successor to the KGB, accused Telegram of failing to remove channels, group chats and automated bots that Russian authorities claim were used by Ukrainian intelligence services and extremist organizations to coordinate attacks, sabotage and cybercrime inside Russia.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The FSB claimed that criminal activity allegedly coordinated through Telegram caused multiple deaths, including among women and children, and resulted in financial losses amounting to billions of rubles. The agency also focused on “Daivinchik,” a popular Telegram-based dating service. Russian authorities alleged that Ukrainian intelligence operatives posed as young women to contact Russian men and later manipulated them into participating in attacks and acts of sabotage. The FSB said 46 young users of the dating service had been detained across 16 Russian regions since July 2025. It accused them of carrying out arson attacks and targeting police officers on instructions from Ukrainian intelligence. Durov, 41, a Russian-born technology entrepreneur and billionaire, founded the social network VKontakte, commonly known as VK, in 2006. It later became Russia’s largest social media platform. He left Russia in 2014 after losing control of VK following a conflict with the authorities. Durov has said he refused requests from Russian security services to provide user information and data linked to opposition communities. Other Topics of Interest US Senate Delivers Overwhelming 86-12 Bipartisan Backing for Russia Sanctions as Zelensky Watches Zelensky’s Capitol visit coincides with a decisive push to squeeze Moscow’s energy revenues and raise the cost to Russia of continuing the war. Durov and his brother Nikolai launched Telegram in 2013. The service has since grown to more than 1 billion users and become an important communications platform in Russia, Ukraine and other countries. Telegram is widely used by civilians, government officials, military personnel, activists and pro-war commentators on both sides of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Russia previously attempted to block Telegram after the company refused to provide encryption keys to the FSB. The effort was largely unsuccessful, and Moscow formally lifted the restrictions in 2020. In a conversation with American podcaster Lex Fridman, Durov claimed that he believed he was dying after experiencing a suspected poisoning in 2018 as governments including Russia attempted to ban Telegram. Durov said that he believed he was dying after returning to his rented townhouse and finding that his “weird neighbor” had left something by the door. “One hour after, when I was already in my bed – I was living alone – I felt very bad. I felt pain all over my body,” Durov recalled. “I tried to get up and go to the bathroom, but while I was going there, I felt that the functions of my body started to switch off.” Durov also faces separate legal proceedings in France. In August 2024, Durov was arrested by French police at an airport near Paris as authorities accused him of failing to take action to curb the criminal use of Telegram, including in fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime and promotion of terrorism. He was subsequently released on bail for €5 million ($5.7 million) but barred from leaving the territory of France until the case was resolved. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.