MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. Telegram refuses to cooperate with Russian police in combating drug propaganda, while the messenger is one of the platforms where teenagers become involved in drug-related crimes, along with the Dark Web, Kirill Smurov, acting head of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for Narcotics Control, said.

"There are a whole number of networks, including <...> Telegram, whose founder, unfortunately, has taken an anti-Russian position. I will tell you frankly that he has failed to respond to our proposal to establish contact. Apart from the Dark Web, our charges tend to communicate through this particular network," he said at a presidium meeting of the ministry’s Public Council.

According to Smurov, it is the responsibility of telecom operators to block groups promoting drug use. In particular, Yandex proactively removes such content once it is detected by its experts or flagged by police. "Telegram does not respond to anything and shares no information," the Interior Ministry official stressed.

Since 2022, Russia has recorded 153,000 crimes committed using Telegram, including the organization of a terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue, the assassinations of journalist Daria Dugina, blogger Maxim Fomin (also known as Vladlen Tatarsky), and nine high-ranking military officers, including Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops. Earlier, the national telecom watchdog sent more than 150,000 requests to Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s team, asking to remove illegal content, but they were ignored. On July 30, Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service added Durov’s name to its list of terrorists and extremists.

In Russia, Durov has been charged with facilitating terrorist activities as part of a criminal investigation, and steps have been taken to place him on the international wanted list. According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), Telegram’s administration, in violation of Russian law, has failed to remove numerous channels, chats and bots on the messenger that are actively used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies, terrorist and extremist organizations to prepare and coordinate terrorist attacks, mass killings and fraud in Russia. Telegram has more than 45 million rubles in unpaid fines for violating Russian laws.