The accusations could expose Pavel Durov to a possible life sentence, escalating a legal dispute that has already resulted in more than 100 million rubles in penalties against Telegram this year.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with allegedly supporting terrorist activities and placed him on an international wanted list, the agency announced on Wednesday.
According to Interfax, the FSB alleges that Telegram failed to take down channels, group chats, and bots that were reportedly used by Ukrainian intelligence-linked actors and extremist organizations to organize sabotage efforts, attacks, and cyber fraud operations within Russia.
The charges filed against Durov reportedly carry a punishment of up to life imprisonment. The FSB did not clarify whether it had sought an Interpol Red Notice, which by itself would not represent an international arrest order.
The case represents a major escalation of an investigation that began in February after Russian authorities started limiting Telegram’s operations. The platform has received more than 100 million rubles ($1.25 million) in fines this year, mainly over allegations that it failed to remove content prohibited under Russian law, Interfax reported.
Telegram remains one of the crypto industry’s most important communication and distribution platforms, supporting project communities, trading channels, automated bots, and blockchain-powered Mini Apps.
The messaging platform also maintains a close relationship with The Open Network (TON), whose native token was renamed from Toncoin to Gram in June. TON provides infrastructure for payments, tokenized assets, and Mini Apps within Telegram, giving the network potential exposure to Telegram’s user base of over 1 billion people.
Gram was trading near $1.42, down approximately 2.4% over the past 24 hours. Earlier this month, Durov said Telegram plans to integrate a native, non-custodial Gram wallet directly into the Telegram app for users worldwide.
