Crocus Attack and High-Profile Killings: Russian Media Say Pavel Durov Suspected of Aiding Terrorism

Russian media, citing FSB materials (Russia’s counterpart to Kazakhstan’s KNB), claim that Pavel Durov’s Telegram failed to remove channels calling for extremism and distributing content from terrorist organizations when ordered to do so — and that this allegedly contributed to a series of tragedies, Orda.kz reports.

This was first reported by Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Komsomolskaya Pravda. Both newspapers cite the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall and the killings of Daria Dugina and Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov as examples of «crimes committed using Telegram».

The articles claim that Telegram’s management failed to meet Roskomnadzor’s requirements and did not remove more than 10,500 channels allegedly inciting extremism and 1,125 channels posting materials from extremist and terrorist organizations. They also claim Telegram failed to delete 1,369 channels, chats and bots linked to child pornography; 3,771 drug-related channels; 2,666 channels promoting suicide; and 2,124 channels encouraging minors to take part in illegal activities.

Citing data from the Interior Ministry and the FSB, the authors say that since 2022 the messenger has been involved in 153,000 crimes, 33,000 of them described as subversive, terrorist or extremist.

Under Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code («assisting terrorist activity»), Durov could face a prison sentence ranging from eight years to life.

Earlier, Orda.kz reported that a business dinner in Paris ended with the arrest of the well-known developer and businessman.

Original author: Alexander Smolin