Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Wednesday that it has charged Pavel Durov, the founder of the messaging application Telegram, with "aiding terrorism" and placed him on an international wanted list. The FSB stated that Telegram's administration has failed to remove numerous channels, chats, and bots that it claims are actively used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies, terrorist, and extremist organizations.
According to the agency's statement, these platforms are allegedly being utilized for the preparation and coordination of sabotage and terrorism acts, mass murder, and cyber fraud within Russia. The charges against Durov come as Russian authorities have been increasing restrictions on Telegram, one of the most popular messaging applications in the country.
Durov had previously stated in the year that Russian authorities initiated a criminal investigation against him. He accused them of fabricating pretexts to restrict access to Telegram as part of an effort to undermine the right to privacy and free speech.