Russia Promotes State Linked 'Max' App as It Accuses Telegram of Enabling Sabotage and Mass Murder

Russia's Federal Security Service has accused Telegram founder Pavel Durov of enabling sabotage, terrorist recruitment and mass murder, formally adding the 41-year-old to its international wanted list. The move comes as the Kremlin ramps up its promotion of Max, a state-linked messaging platform that digital rights researchers say hands user data directly to authorities. Human Rights Watch documented the push in a March 2026 report, citing Durov's own description of the pressure campaign as an effort to force people onto 'a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship'.

The FSB said on Wednesday that Telegram had failed to remove channels allegedly used by Ukrainian intelligence to coordinate sabotage and cyber fraud inside Russia. Durov, who holds French and Emirati citizenship and lives in Dubai, could face life in prison if convicted.

FSB Puts Durov on Wanted List Over Terrorism Claims

The FSB alleged that Telegram had failed to remove 'numerous channels, chats and bots' used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies, terrorist and extremist organisations to plan attacks. According to the FSB, Kyiv used a dating chatbot on the app to recruit Russians, some as young as 12, for arson and assaults on law enforcement officers.

Durov has dismissed the case as fabricated, telling supporters the Kremlin is trying to 'suppress the right to privacy and free speech'. Telegram, which has more than a billion users worldwide, did not respond to a request for comment, though its official X account posted an image of Durov raising a middle finger to the camera.

Kremlin Pushes State-Controlled Max as Telegram Replacement

While pursuing Durov, Moscow has spent much of the past year steering citizens towards Max, a messaging and services app built by the Russian company VK. Every smartphone sold in the country has been required to come preloaded with Max since 1 September 2025.

Unlike Telegram or WhatsApp, Max does not use end-to-end encryption, and its own terms acknowledge it can share data with authorities on request. Cybersecurity researcher Baptiste Robert, chief executive of French firm Predicta Lab, said that any data passing through the app ends up 'in the hands of... the Russian state'.

Meta has separately described Max as a 'surveillance app', and Human Rights Watch documented Russia's push to move citizens onto Max in a March 2026 report, citing Durov's own description of the pressure campaign as an effort to force people onto 'a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship'.

The Kremlin has paired the Max rollout with tighter restrictions on rival platforms. Facebook, Instagram and X have been banned in Russia and YouTube has been throttled, while Signal and Viber have been blocked outright. WhatsApp and Telegram remain accessible only in restricted form.

Troops and Activists Resist Telegram Restrictions

The strategy has not gone unchallenged. Russian military bloggers have criticised efforts to sideline Telegram, arguing it remains an essential communications tool for troops in Ukraine and for volunteers running crowdfunding drives for Moscow's forces.

Activists in several Russian regions have also tried to organise protests against the Telegram restrictions. Authorities have shut down nearly all of these attempts.

The case reflects a wider pattern among authoritarian governments of encouraging, or mandating, domestically controlled apps, from Russia's Max to China's WeChat, that give security services direct visibility into citizens' communications.

For Telegram, still used daily by tens of millions of people inside Russia despite years of restrictions, the FSB's terrorism accusation against Durov marks the most serious step yet in the Kremlin's long-running effort to bring the app under state control. It signals how far Moscow is willing to go to push its own surveillance-capable platform as the default.