俄罗斯联邦安全局于7月29日指控Telegram创始人帕维尔·杜罗夫协助恐怖活动，并对其发布了国际逮捕令[2]。俄方声称Telegram存在众多频道、聊天和机器人被乌克兰情报机构、恐怖组织和极端组织用于策划和协调破坏行动、恐怖袭击、大规模杀戮和网络欺诈[1][2]。俄罗斯当局指控Telegram管理层未能删除这些相关内容[1]。
杜罗夫对俄罗斯的指控进行了反驳，称当局是在"捏造借口以限制Telegram的访问，试图压制隐私权和言论自由"[1]。俄罗斯自去年8月以来一直对该平台的运营进行限制，今年已对其罚款超过100万卢布[2]。克宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫表示，官员曾讨论恢复Telegram完全运营的可能性，但指公司代表缺乏主动性[2]。杜罗夫是俄罗斯出生的亿万富翁，现居迪拜，2013年创立了Telegram，该平台目前拥有超过10亿用户[2]。
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with assisting terrorism and placed him on an international wanted list [1][2]. The charges were announced on Wednesday, July 29 [2]. Russian authorities allege that Telegram's management failed to remove numerous channels, chats, and bots used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies, terrorist organizations, and extremist groups to coordinate sabotage, terrorism, mass murder, and cyberfraud [1][2].
Durov has dismissed the allegations as fabricated pretexts designed to restrict access to Telegram as part of an effort to suppress privacy rights and freedom of speech [1]. The Russian-born billionaire, who currently resides in Dubai and founded Telegram in 2013, leads a platform with over 1 billion users [2].
Russia has been restricting Telegram's operations since August of the previous year [2]. This year alone, Russian courts have imposed fines exceeding 100 million rubles—approximately 1.26 million dollars and 1.1 million euros—against the company [2]. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated that officials have discussed restoring Telegram's full operations, but stated that company representatives have shown a lack of initiative in such discussions [2].