Russia adds Telegram founder to list of terrorists, extremists

Russia's financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring, on Thursday added Telegram founder Pavel Durov to its list of terrorists and extremists.

The move follows criminal charges announced earlier this week accusing Durov of aiding terror activities. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said Wednesday it initiated procedures to place the Telegram co-founder on an international wanted list.

The FSB alleges that Telegram's administration failed to remove channels, chats and bots used by Ukrainian intelligence services, as well as terror and extremist organizations to prepare and coordinate attacks, mass killings and fraud inside Russia, despite repeated requests from Russian authorities.

Russia's communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, sent Telegram more than 150,000 requests to remove illegal content, but those requests were ignored, according to the FSB.

The security service also said more than 153,000 crimes involving Telegram had been registered in Russia since 2022, including the planning of the 2024 attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow and the killings of Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, journalist Darya Dugina and several senior Russian military officers, including Lieut. Gen. Igor Kirillov.

Telegram and Durov have not publicly responded to the latest accusations.