FSB Puts Durov on Interpol Shopping List; $GRAM Drops the Sad Middle Finger 🖕

Russia's Federal Security Service has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activity and placed him on an international wanted list, Interfax and Sputnik reported on Wednesday. The FSB's public relations center said Durov was charged under Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Russian criminal code, alleging that Telegram does not remove channels, chats and bots "actively used by Ukrainian special services, terrorist and extremist organizations" to prepare and coordinate sabotage, mass killings and cyber fraud in Russia. The agency said the consequences included deaths, among them women and children, and billions in material damage. Minutes after the announcement, the FSB said 46 Russians had been detained after allegedly being recruited by Ukraine through a Telegram dating bot.

Telegram's official account on X responded with a photograph of Durov raising his middle finger, which The Moscow Times reported as a response to the warrant. Durov addressed the situation publicly on Thursday in a Telegram post, saying Russian authorities had designated him a "terrorist" after he refused government demands for mass surveillance and censorship. He added that Russia had barred him from "publishing information on the Internet," writing that authorities had "got confused about who can ban whom from the Internet." A Russian wanted-list entry is a domestic designation and does not compel other states to act, and any Interpol notice would require a separate request and Interpol's own review. Durov has not lived in Russia since 2014 and is based in Dubai; AFP has reported that he holds at least four passports — Russian, French, Emirati and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Durov first confirmed the underlying investigation in February on X, writing: "Each day, the authorities fabricate new pretexts to restrict Russians' access to Telegram as they seek to suppress the right to privacy and free speech," and later calling it "a sad spectacle of a state afraid of its own people." The February case centered on regulators' claims that Telegram left nearly 155,000 channels, chats and bots online despite alleged violations of Russian laws on extremist content, terrorism, drug trafficking and other illicit activity. Russia began restricting Telegram in August last year and has fined the platform 100 million rubles ($1.3 million) so far this year, mostly for failing to delete banned content, Interfax reported. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that contacts over restoring the service continue, though Telegram's representatives were "not very active," while the state promotes its own MAX messenger, which activists have dismissed as a "digital trap."

Durov still faces an ongoing criminal investigation in France, where he was indicted in 2024 over drug trafficking, organized fraud and child sexual abuse material on Telegram and released under judicial supervision on a €5 million ($5.5 million) bond; French authorities lifted his travel restrictions later that year, allowing him to leave the country. Durov has denied wrongdoing and called the French case "legally and logically absurd." Separately, Australia's eSafety Commission this week commenced civil penalty proceedings in federal court against Telegram for alleged failure to detect and remove pro-terror material, with eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant saying Telegram failed to comply with the Online Safety Act's Relevant Electronic Services Standard.

Telegram said this month it would push a native, non-custodial GRAM wallet to more than a billion users, a rollout Durov called the largest in history. The token, renamed from Toncoin in June after an 81% community vote, rose 7% on that announcement. GRAM traded at $1.42 on Wednesday, down 2.5%, per CoinGecko data, extending a weekly drop to roughly 12% as the FSB charges hit the market.