Other-News
By Bruce Buterin
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Durov's Long History With Russian Authorities. The warrant didn't come out of nowhere. Russia and Telegram have been at each other's throats for…
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Global Scrutiny and the $442 Billion Problem. Russia isn't the only one with grievances. The UN flagged Telegram in 2024 as a haven for money…
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Russia wants Pavel Durov behind bars. The country's Federal Security Service, the FSB, has pushed an international arrest warrant for the Telegram founder, accusing him of…
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The FSB's case is pretty specific. According to Russian authorities, Telegram refused to take down channels, chats, and bots that Ukrainian special services and other groups…
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Telegram's response to the arrest warrant was, let's say, blunt. The platform's official social media account posted an image of Durov making an obscene gesture at the camera.
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The warrant didn't come out of nowhere. Russia and Telegram have been at each other's throats for years. Back in April 2018, the FSB demanded access to Telegram's encryption keys.
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Earlier this year, Russia fined Telegram 100 million rubles — about $1.26 million — for failing to remove banned content.
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Then there's France. In 2024, Durov was arrested in France on accusations tied to criminal activity on Telegram, including fraud and money laundering.
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Russia isn't the only one with grievances. The UN flagged Telegram in 2024 as a haven for money laundering, a label that stuck and circulated widely across financial crime circles.
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More context: Russia Charges Pavel Durov as Telegrams TON Ecosystem Faces Crypto Fallout
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For crypto traders and investors, that $442 billion figure isn't abstract. Scam operations running through Telegram have targeted crypto users specifically, using the platform's…
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Durov has managed to keep building through all of it. His TON crypto project pulled in $1.7 billion from Russian and other investors, which is a remarkable fundraising result for…
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And that tension is probably what keeps driving the legal pile-on. Encrypted platforms that resist state access are genuinely threatening to governments that rely on surveillance…
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Durov, currently based in Dubai, hasn't made any public statement in response to the Russian warrant beyond that image his team posted.
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Read also: Senate CLARITY Act Vote Hangs Over Crypto Industry as August Recess Looms
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