Russia Lists Durov as Terrorist Day After FSB Warrant, Cites $1.26M Telegram Fine

Russia’s financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring, placed Telegram founder Pavel Durov on its registry of terrorists and extremists on Thursday, just one day after the Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a criminal case and issued an international arrest warrant against him. The listing is the latest escalation in a legal dispute that traces back to a $1.7 billion fundraising round Durov secured for his TON crypto project in 2018, before Russia banned Telegram outright.

The FSB alleges that Telegram failed to remove channels, chats, and bots “used by Ukrainian special services and by terrorist and extremist organisations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass killings, and cyber-fraud operations within the Russian Federation.” The agency claims this failure caused “numerous human casualties” and billions in material damage, according to Russian authorities.

A dating bot at the center of the case

Russian investigators point specifically to a Telegram dating chatbot that they say Ukrainian forces used to recruit Russian citizens for sabotage work. Moscow states it has already detained 46 users in connection with alleged criminal acts tied to the bot, a figure that underscores the scale authorities are attaching to the case.

Telegram’s official X account responded to the arrest warrant with a photo of Durov making an obscene gesture toward the camera, a blunt signal that the company has no intention of cooperating with the charges. Durov himself has now broken his silence, accusing Moscow of punishing him for refusing to hand Russian authorities the mass surveillance and censorship tools they demanded.

A financial paper trail: fines, funding and a ban

The numbers around this dispute stretch back years. Earlier this year, Russia fined Telegram 100 million rubles — roughly $1.26 million — for failing to remove content banned in the country. That penalty followed a much longer history: in April 2018, Telegram refused to hand the FSB its encryption keys, and Russia banned the app later that same month.

Just before that ban, Durov had closed a $1.7 billion funding round from Russian billionaires and other investors to bankroll TON, the blockchain project now closely tied to Telegram’s crypto ambitions. Durov has also said he was poisoned in spring 2018 after receiving an unmarked package, though he has not specified an exact date for the incident.

The current warrant is not Durov’s first brush with international law enforcement. He was arrested in France in 2024 on charges of allowing criminal activity — including fraud, child sexual abuse material, and money laundering — to spread unchecked on Telegram. A year later, French authorities permitted the dual France/Dubai citizen to return to his Dubai residence while the investigation continued. Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly criticized that arrest in September 2024, noting that “many countries have raised concerns about the platform.”

Why it matters for TON and Telegram users

For holders of TON-linked assets and Telegram’s broader crypto ecosystem, the renewed legal pressure on Durov adds another layer of jurisdictional risk on top of the ongoing French case. Russia’s terrorist registry listing carries potential financial and travel restrictions that could complicate Durov’s ability to operate freely, even as Telegram’s public response signals defiance rather than compliance.

Read more: GRAM Drops Below $1.40 as Russia Puts Durov on International Wanted List

Sources

• beincrypto.com
• protos.com