Russia Seeks International Arrest of Telegram Founder Pavel Durov on Terror Charge

Russia Issues International Arrest Warrant for Telegram Founder Pavel Durov for Aiding Terrorism

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that it has issued an international arrest warrant for Telegram founder Pavel Durov, citing the app's failure to remove channels used in terrorist and sabotage activities.

Scraper SystemJuly 29, 2026, 11:32 AM

Russia Issues International Arrest Warrant for Telegram Founder Pavel Durov for Aiding Terrorism

Russia’s security service, the FSB, has issued an international arrest warrant for Pavel Durov, founder of the popular messaging app Telegram. The FSB stated that Durov is under investigation on charges of aiding terrorist activities.

The statement said Telegram’s management has not removed channels and bots used to coordinate terrorist and sabotage activities in Russia. The FSB alleged that Ukrainian intelligence services, along with terrorist and extremist organizations, are using numerous channels, chat groups, and bots on the app to plan and coordinate sabotage, terrorist attacks, mass killings, and cyber fraud.

Telegram app faces further restrictions, possible fines as Russian authorities clamp down | Reuters

In Russia, access to Telegram had previously been blocked and the company was fined a total of more than 100 million rubles. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the end of July that contacts were ongoing to restore Telegram’s full operations, but that company representatives were not sufficiently active in the process.

Telegram remains one of the most popular messaging and social media apps in Russia.