“Russia declared me a ‘terrorist’ for refusing to comply with its demands for mass surveillance and censorship on the Telegram platform,” he wrote on his platform.
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He noted that under Russian law he is now banned from “publishing information online.”
“Russian officials are clearly confused about who can forbid whom from using the internet,” he remarked ironically.
On Thursday, Russia added the founder of Telegram to the blacklist of “terrorists and extremists,” just days after announcing it was seeking his arrest on charges of allowing Ukrainian intelligence to use his messaging platform.
P. Durov – a technology entrepreneur who has lived outside Russia for many years and holds French and United Arab Emirates passports – has repeatedly clashed with Russian authorities as Moscow tightens control over the internet space.
The messaging platform he created, Telegram, is one of the main communication tools in Russia. Officials have repeatedly tried to block access to it or disrupt its operation in an effort to force P. Durov to hand over user data or encourage Russians to use an unencrypted, state-backed alternative platform.
Russia’s security service FSB announced this week that it has launched an international search for 41-year-old P. Durov, although it is unclear whether other countries or law enforcement agencies will join in.
On Thursday, his name appeared in Russia’s online register of “terrorists and extremists” – a blacklist maintained by Russia’s financial supervisory authority Rosfinmonitoring.
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Persons included in the list are essentially prohibited from conducting transactions on Russian territory.
Moscow often targets its political opponents, including those who have left the country, accusing them of supporting terrorism or extremism.
The FSB stated that Telegram did not remove a popular dating bot which, according to Moscow, is used by Ukrainian special services to involve young Russians “in terrorist and sabotage activities.”
Born in Saint Petersburg – the hometown of Russian President Vladimir Putin – P. Durov founded the social network VKontakte, known as the “Russian Facebook.”
Due to pressure from authorities in the mid-2010s, he was forced to leave the company and founded Telegram.
Moscow has unsuccessfully tried for years to block Telegram and recently pressured users to switch to the unencrypted state-backed messaging app Max, which P. Durov has strongly criticized as “designed for surveillance and political censorship.”
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