MOSCOW, July 30. The restrictions imposed on Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov, who was added to the terrorist list by the financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring on Thursday, do not apply to Telegram as a legal entity, the watchdog's press service stated.
"The above-mentioned restrictions do not apply to Telegram as a legal entity," the federal agency stated. At the same time, organizations involved in financial transactions and dealings with other assets are required to freeze the assets of persons designated as terrorists and extremists in Russia, the press service added.
Accusations of aiding terrorism
Russia charged Durov with aiding terrorist activities as part of a criminal investigation, and proceedings have been initiated to declare him internationally wanted.
According to the Federal Security Service, Telegram, in violation of Russian law, failed to remove a number of channels, chats and bots that are actively used by Ukrainian special services, terrorist and extremist organizations to plan and coordinate terrorist attacks, mass killings and fraudulent activities in Russia.
Since 2022, Russia has recorded 153,000 criminal offenses committed using Telegram, including the organization of the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall, the murders of Darya Dugina, Maxim Fomin (Vladlen Tatarsky) and nine senior military officials, including Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, commander of the nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces. Previously, the telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor had sent Durov's team more than 150,000 requests to remove illegal content, all of which were ignored.
TASS / gnews.cz