Russia adds Telegram founder Pavel Durov to list of ‘terrorists and extremists’

Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service, known as Rosfinmonitoring, has added Telegram founder Pavel Durov to its list of terrorists and extremists, according to an updated version of the registry.An asterisk next to Durov’s name indicates that a criminal case has been opened against him under a terrorism-related statute.The Federal Security Service (FSB) announced July 29 that Durov has been charged with aiding terrorist activity, saying Telegram’s administration failed to remove channels and bots used to coordinate terrorist attacks and sabotage in Russia.Durov is under criminal investigation on the charge of aiding terrorist activity (Part 1.1, Article 205.1 of Russia’s Criminal Code), and the FSB added that he is being “placed on the international wanted list.”Durov has not commented on the charges. A few hours after the FSB’s press release, he changed his channel’s avatar to a photo of himself in the guise of a terrorist, then removed it soon after. Telegram’s official account on X posted an old photo of Durov giving the middle finger.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.