The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has been added to the list of terrorists and extremists in Russia. The measure involves several restrictions, including forcing banks to freeze his funds and other assets. The businessman will also be banned from conducting transactions.
Durov has been accused of complicity in terrorist activities. According to the allegations made, the Telegram administration failed to delete the channels, chats and bots used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies to plan terrorist attacks in Russia.
The criminal case refers to the use of the dating chatbot “Dayvinchik/Leo” to recruit young Russians into sabotage and terrorist activities, writes The Moscow Times. According to the FSB, 46 young people recruited through this tool have been detained since July 2025.
Investigators claim that they allegedly attacked police officers and caused fires, on the orders of the Ukrainian authorities.
At the same time, Russia has initiated procedures to announce Pavel Durov on international search.