Russia Charges Telegram Founder Pavel Durov With Aiding Terrorist Activity

Summary: Russia's Federal Security Service charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with aiding terrorist activity under Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, saying the platform failed to remove channels, chats, and bots used by Ukrainian special services and terrorist organizations to coordinate sabotage, mass killings, and cyber-fraud. The FSB also placed Durov on the international wanted list and said 46 Russian citizens aged 12 to 22 were detained between July 2025 and the present after being recruited through a Telegram chatbot called "Daivinchik" and coerced into armed attacks, arson, and acting as couriers for cryptocurrency deposits.
Bottom line: The FSB describes a recruitment pipeline that ran through an ordinary Telegram dating chatbot, drew in targets as young as 12, and ended with coerced arson and armed attacks on transport, energy, communications, and financial infrastructure - a pattern any platform with open messaging and young users should assume is being run against it.

Read the original at The Hacker News ↗