Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, reported this Thursday that Russia has officially designated him as a "terrorist" for rejecting the Kremlin's demands to implement mass surveillance and censorship on his messaging platform.
"Russia has designated me as a 'terrorist' for refusing to comply with its demands for mass surveillance and censorship on Telegram," Durov wrote on his personal channel, in a message that garnered 1.35 million views within just a few hours.
The formal designation occurred in two stages. On Wednesday, the FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) issued a wanted notice against Durov, accusing him of "complicity in terrorism" for the alleged use of a Telegram dating bot—called Leo Match—to recruit young Russians for activities of sabotage supposedly coordinated by Ukrainian intelligence.
This Thursday, the Russian financial agency Rosfinmonitoring added Durov to the official register of "terrorists and extremists" in the country, as confirmed by Reuters.
The same list includes the Taliban, Meta, and the so-called "LGBT movement."
The agency specified that the designation primarily affects Durov's personal finances and does not extend to Telegram as a legal entity, which means the app remains technically accessible in Russia.
Durov responded with his characteristic irony: "Under Russian law, I am prohibited from 'publishing information on the internet,'" he wrote, adding, "Russian officials are clearly confused about who can ban whom from the internet."
The escalation marks the peak of a struggle that has been ongoing for years. In 2018, Russia ordered a total blockade of Telegram after Durov refused to hand over the encryption keys to the FSB; the attempt failed as users worked around it using virtual private networks and was lifted in June 2020. Since then, the platform has become the most widely used in the country.
In February, Moscow launched a new criminal investigation against Durov, who publicly reported that the Kremlin was creating pretexts to restrict Telegram and push users towards MAX, the state messaging service designed to allow government surveillance.
Durov, born in Russia and holding French nationality since 2021, is facing legal proceedings in France since his arrest in August 2024, when he became formally investigated for six charges related to alleged criminal activities facilitated through Telegram.
French justice fully lifted its travel restrictions on November 13, 2025, although the investigation remains open.
The confluence of both processes —one Russian, which Durov denounces as politically motivated, and another French, concerning alleged crimes related to organized crime— places the founder of one of the largest communication platforms in the world in an unprecedented legal position.
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