Russia Charges Telegram Founder Durov With Facilitating Terrorism (bbc.com) 42
Russia has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorism, alleging the platform was used by Ukrainian intelligence "to prepare and co-ordinate acts of sabotage and terror" inside Russia. An international arrest warrant has been issued for Durov, who currently lives in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where Telegram keeps its main office. The BBC reports: Shortly after the charge was announced, Telegram's account on X posted an image showing Durov holding up his middle finger. He has previously accused Russian authorities of "fabricating new pretexts to restrict Russians' access to Telegram."
[...] Multi-billionaire Durov, 41, has lived outside of Russia for many years and holds French and United Arab Emirates (UAE) passports. It is unclear whether other countries or authorities would comply with an arrest warrant issued by Russia.
Durov left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on the platform. He had previously founded popular Russian social media company VKontakte - dubbed the "Facebook of Russia." In 2024, Durov was arrested and investigated by the French government in connection with criminal activity on the platform and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement. "He was allowed to go home months later, with the investigation continuing," notes the BBC.
[...] Multi-billionaire Durov, 41, has lived outside of Russia for many years and holds French and United Arab Emirates (UAE) passports. It is unclear whether other countries or authorities would comply with an arrest warrant issued by Russia.
Durov left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on the platform. He had previously founded popular Russian social media company VKontakte - dubbed the "Facebook of Russia." In 2024, Durov was arrested and investigated by the French government in connection with criminal activity on the platform and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement. "He was allowed to go home months later, with the investigation continuing," notes the BBC.
Ukraine (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ukraine (Score:4, Funny)
Communists being communists ... (Score:2)
Ukraine wouldn't have resorted to "acts of sabotage and terrorism" [if] Russia hadn't invaded them.
You can’t expect communists not to pursue the communist end game, or the Soviet Union restoration short term goal. You don’t seem to understand that their ‘end game’ is so morally superior in their minds that invasions and such are rationalized. That in their minds Ukraine ‘attacked’ them first by going counterrevolutionary and wanting to align with the west.
Funny Twist (Score:2)
This is a funny twist. I had always assumed him and his company to be Russian agents.
I will admit that I do enjoy seeing his middle finger in Putin's eye.
How did he make multiple billions off of Telegram? I thought it was free.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, he may or may not be facilitating terrorism, but he's definitely facilitating SPAM.
Re: (Score:1)
How did he make multiple billions off of Telegram? I thought it was free.
It's free if you don't mind being constantly spammed by online romance scams. The ability to block everyone not on your contacts list is locked behind a paywall. It also can't send replies via CarPlay, but I'm not sure if paying fixes that annoyance, as I refuse to subscribe out of principle. I have this one friend who only uses Telegram, otherwise I'd uninstall this dumpster fire of a messaging app.
I'm also honestly kind of surprised our current regime hasn't tried banning Telegram, but I guess because
Re: (Score:2)
This is a funny twist. I had always assumed him and his company to be Russian agents.
This COULD all be a ruse to combat that assumption.
Re: (Score:2)
I had always assumed him and his company to be Russian agents.
i guess it's more complicated than that. i would assume he's a western agent now, considering events like his catch-and-release by french authorities, his residence and that photo. who knows! he could be a double agent! then again telegram has been (and is being) used by many different parties, from russian troops to ukranian terrorists to cia to pedophiles to cryptobros to activists to nazis to a big chunk of regular people. i use it as a source of real-time news and it's quite good at that.
I will admit that I do enjoy seeing his middle finger in Putin's eye.
yeah, cool. a b
Never ‘Out of reach" (Score:3)
ofc he has little to fear as long as he is out of reach
Like downtown London having a meal with your daughter at a public restaurant? Or just walking down a central London street?
Communists like Putin make a point of showing that there is no such things as ‘out of reach”.
Communists killing communists is normal ... (Score:2)
This is a funny twist. I had always assumed him and his company to be Russian agents.
For the same of argument, lets assume Durov shares some pro-Soviet ideas with Putin. Communists killing communists is quite normal. It usually takes place after the external enemies are mostly killed, but killing fellow communists who are not ideologically identical to you, or who are not submissive to you, seems to be a pretty common thing when you look at history.
So it's purely symbolic? (Score:2)
Unless a State in which he resides in agrees to extradite him for the charges (which... let's assume he's smart enough to avoid States friendly with Russia), then this is about as grandstanding as the term gets. Unsurprising given the turmoil Russia's going through lately with Ukraine knocking at their front door after all this baseless aggression.
Re:So it's purely symbolic? (Score:5, Informative)
Unless a State in which he resides in agrees to extradite him for the charges (which... let's assume he's smart enough to avoid States friendly with Russia), then this is about as grandstanding as the term gets.
Russia has assassinated former Russian citizens outside of Russia before, it would be unsurprising if they did it again.
Re: (Score:2)
Russia has assassinated former Russian citizens outside of Russia before, it would be unsurprising if they did it again.
I suppose they could do that, but I don't know what it would accomplish. Telegram is already written and functional; murdering Durov wouldn't uninstall it anywhere. I suppose it might intimidate the next guy who is considering writing a secure messaging app, but I don't think Russia is playing that kind of decades-long game anymore. Their main goal now is short-term: figure out how survive the Ukraine debacle without getting strung up by their own citizenry.
Re:So it's purely symbolic? (Score:4, Informative)
Russia has assassinated former Russian citizens outside of Russia before, it would be unsurprising if they did it again.
I suppose they could do that, but I don't know what it would accomplish.
It demonstrates that enemies of the state are never beyond the reach of the state.
Re: (Score:2)
Telegram is already written and functional; murdering Durov wouldn't uninstall it anywhere.
Presumably a new CEO would be put in place. It may be a good idea for that new CEO to learn about Russia's open requests about how to run the platforms. You know... for the demonstrated personal health reasons associated with the request.
If murdering people to send a message wasn't a thing which worked, there'd be virtually no deaths in the illicit drug industry.
Re: (Score:2)
the current record holders for high profile assasinations abroad are israel and the us, in that order and far ahead of anyone else. just saying, you do you.
i hear you mumbling: "but, but, they're all republicans!!!!". oh, kid ...
Re: So it's purely symbolic? (Score:2)
Nice whataboutism and unsupported speculation, but do fuck off
Re: (Score:2)
the current record holders for high profile assasinations abroad are israel and the us, in that order and far ahead of anyone else.
Excepts those targets of the US and Israel have blood on their hands, not printing press ink.
Blood on their hands, not printing press ink (Score:2)
the current record holders for high profile assasinations abroad are israel and the us, in that order and far ahead of anyone else. just saying.
Excepts those targets of the US and Israel have blood on their hands, not printing press ink.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
1) If you're a prosecution or judge in charge of topic X, you issue warrants because it's your job. There's no reason to refuse preparing the paperwork or refusing signing it the topic is raised to your attention. Whether the warrant has a hope to be served is not your part of the problem. Justice systems everywhere issue warrants in hopeless cases, like against drug lords in hiding, or the ICC issuing a warrant against Putin.
2) It is not symbolic, it has consequences:
* Durov is persona non grata within Rus
Arrest ? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
They are not wrong... (Score:3)
Re: They are not wrong... (Score:1)
Ukraine goes out of its way to not target civilians. That is the opposite of terrorism.
Re: (Score:2)
Correct, now re-read the OP's post.
International Arrest Warrant (Score:2)
Don't they have a large backlog [wikipedia.org] of arrest warrants to work through?
I have seen someone advocating for LGBTQ+ (Score:2)
Dead man walking (Score:1)
Better not fly over Belarus (Score:2)
or other Russian Allies.
We all know what Belarus did then don't we?
Russia could pull a Mossad-style extradition as well.
Durov's planes are a target too (Score:2)
Just ask former Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world... [bbc.com]
Good luck with that. (Score:1)
Somehow I doubt that the Emirates are going to extradite a guy to a country that is currently moving drone and missile components from China to Iran where they are used to attack targets in Dubai.
Remember when France did the same thing to Durov? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No one remembers this. This is Slashdot. We lack the ability to read to TFS.
But to your point: Countries clearly don't like the app allows truly encrypted messaging with no backdoors.
At no point did France request back doors or access to messages. The guy was arrested because the platform failed to co-operate with lawful orders they could execute without ever compromising encryption.