The FSB Public Relations Center said in a statement that “Telegram’s head of administration, P. Durov, has been charged as part of an ongoing criminal investigation on suspicion of an offense under Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, concerning assistance in terrorist activities. He is being placed on an international wanted list.”
The FSB added that the charges related to Telegram’s failure “in violation of Russian law,” to remove “numerous channels, chats, and bots of this messenger, which are actively used by Ukrainian special services, terrorist, and extremist organizations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass murder, and cyber-fraud in the Russian Federation, the consequences of which have resulted in numerous human casualties, including women and children, as well as material losses amounting to billions.”
Specifically, the FSB said that it had “identified and documented numerous instances of Ukrainian intelligence agencies using the popular youth chatbot ‘Dayvinchik/Leo - Dating, Chat, and New Friends’ on the Telegram messenger to lure Russian citizens into sabotage and terrorist activities through deception and psychological manipulation.”
The intelligence service said that as a result of joint operations with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee of Russia, it had identified and detained “46 Russian citizens aged 12 to 22 years” who had been using the chatbot and, subsequently, “committed armed attacks on law enforcement officers, arson attacks on transportation, energy, communications, and credit and financial system facilities,” on the orders of the Ukrainian special services.
The detainees had also “acted as couriers delivering funds from defrauded citizens to crypto exchange points for crediting to enemy-controlled accounts,” the FSB added, saying Ukrainian intelligence officers used the Telegram “Dayvinchik” dating bot, posing as women, to contact young Russian men, persuading them to share geolocations of meeting places (often shopping centers or key facilities) and pay for tickets or gifts via phishing links.
Later, individuals posing as Russian law-enforcement or Rosfinmonitoring (Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service) officers contacted the victims through other apps, claiming the money had funded Ukrainian forces and the coordinates had been used for missile or drone strikes, according to the FSB, then used threats of prosecution and psychological pressure to coerce them into committing armed attacks or arson under the guise of anti-terrorism checks or fake operational tasks.
The Epoch Times contacted Durov and Telegram for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Telegram’s official X account posted an image of Durov making an obscene gesture shortly after the arrest warrant was announced on July 29.
At the time, Durov said his app remains committed to freedom of speech and user privacy “no matter the pressure.”
Telegram, an encrypted messenger app, says it has more than 1 billion users, and is widely used on both sides of the Russia–Ukraine war, including by the Kremlin.
Third-party compiled data estimates there are around 35 million Telegram users in Russia—one of the largest national user bases globally.
While trying to restrict Telegram’s use in recent years, Russia has promoted its own state-backed MAX messenger service.
Durov, who was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, but now holds Emirati and French passports, founded Russia’s Facebook equivalent, VKontakte, before selling his remaining stake in 2014 amid pressure from Russian authorities.
He founded Telegram in 2013.
Durov denies any wrongdoing.
