Russia issues international arrest warrant for Telegram founder Pavel Durov

Moscow has issued an international arrest warrant for Pavel Durov, the founder of the popular messaging app Telegram, accusing him of supporting terrorism. Russia's domestic intelligence service, the FSB, stated that Durov's platform has refused to close chats and bots used by Ukrainian intelligence and terrorist groups to recruit individuals within Russia for sabotage and terrorist attacks.

The FSB cited a popular dating chatbot as an example, alleging that Ukrainian services used it to incite 46 young Russians, aged 12 to 22, to commit crimes classified by the FSB as terrorist acts. Durov, a Russian national who left his home country years ago, reacted to the news by posting a defiant image on the platform X, showing him giving the middle finger.

This move comes as Russia has intensified internet censorship since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Telegram, which boasts over a billion users worldwide, has faced restrictions, including the throttling of its services. Durov has previously accused Russian authorities of fabricating pretexts to limit access to Telegram, aiming to restrict privacy and free speech. He was also detained in France in 2024 on similar accusations of not preventing extremist use of his platform, though Russia had previously called his persecution political.