Russia Issues Arrest Warrant for Telegram Founder Pavel Durov: Report

The new charges from Russia come a few years after Durov was arrested in France. According to several reports, Russia’s Federal Security Service has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activity and issued an international warrant for his arrest. The agency alleged that the messenger app failed to remove content used by Ukrainian intelligence services as well as terrorist and extremist organizations to coordinate sabotage, mass killings, cyber fraud, and other attacks against Russia. Telegram is among the most used applications on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war, with more than a billion users around the world. Although the report stated that Moscow has repeatedly attempted to restrict the app and promote the state-backed MAX service, Russian government bodies, including the Kremlin and the defense ministry, continue to prefer Durov’s platform for official communication. Previous reports from earlier this year claimed that Durov was already under investigation in a terrorism-related case. A summons addressed to Suspect P.V. Durov was reportedly delivered to an apartment he had lived in over 20 years ago. He responded at the time that he was targeted...