Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that an international arrest warrant has been issued for Telegram founder Pavel Durov on charges of aiding terrorist activities. The FSB stated that Telegram's management did not remove channels and bots used in coordinating terrorist and sabotage acts in Russia.
The statement emphasized that Ukrainian intelligence services and terrorist and extremist organizations use numerous channels, chat groups, and bots on the Telegram platform to prepare and coordinate sabotage and terrorist attacks, mass killings, and cyber fraud activities in Russia.

Previously, access to Telegram had been blocked in Russia and fines totaling over 100 million rubles had been imposed on the company. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on July 27 that contacts regarding Telegram's resumption of full-capacity operations were ongoing, but that company representatives had not been sufficiently active in this process.
Telegram is among the most popular messaging and social media applications in Russia.