Telegram has denied a Russian accusation that foreign intelligence services have breached its security and gained access to the messages exchanged by its users.
The company’s reaction comes in response to Moscow’s allegation that information collected this way is being used against Russian forces on the battlefields of Ukraine.
Russia turns up the pressure on targeted Telegram
Foreign intelligence agencies can read Telegram correspondence, according to Russia’s Minister of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media, Maksut Shadayev.
Speaking in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, the government official elaborated on Wednesday:
“We have direct confirmation from law enforcement agencies that, regrettably, while Telegram was initially regarded as a relatively anonymous platform, used by our military during the early stages of the special military operation, recent evidence indicates that foreign intelligence services now have access to Telegram communications.”
“What was once sporadic has now become an ongoing, systematic effort,” he further noted, quoted by the TASS news agency, alleging that the information they are gathering is being used in operations against the Russian armed forces.
Shadayev then revealed that Russia has nevertheless decided not to restrict Telegram in the conflict zone in Ukraine, while expressing hope that its military personnel will eventually transition to alternative messaging apps.
The minister’s statements come after Russia’s telecom watchdog, Roskomnadzor (RKN), recently slowed down the messenger as part of pressure to make it comply with Russian law, mainly regarding requirements to remove prohibited content.
Russia’s system for internet censorship, which relies on TSPU (Technical Means of Counteracting Threats) devices deployed at internet service providers, allows for targeted and geographically defined restrictions.
However, experts recently pointed out that throttling down traffic to Telegram has brought the country’s firewall to its technical limits, which is why the RKN decided to block Meta’s messenger WhatsApp and Google’s video-sharing platform YouTube completely.
Commenting on Moscow’s actions, Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov said in a post that Russia is restricting his platform in an attempt to “force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship.”
The latter is called Max and has been developed by the Russian social media network VK (VKontakte), which he also founded and managed before leaving his native country and selling his stake in that company more than a decade ago.
Telegram dismisses Moscow’s allegation
On Thursday, the popular messenger rejected the claim that its security has been compromised by foreign spies reading the messages of Russian soldiers.
Asked for a comment by the Reuters news agency, the company insisted “no breaches of Telegram’s encryption have ever been found” and also stated:
“The Russian government’s allegation that our encryption has been compromised is a deliberate fabrication intended to justify outlawing Telegram.”
It also repeated its owner’s accusation that Moscow wants to make Russians use the state-promoted alternative platform, allegedly engineered to surveil and censor their communications.
Telegram’s defiant reaction contrasts with recent Russian reports that the messaging service has started complying with local requirements regarding content moderation.
Russian authorities have been pressing the messenger, widely used not just by ordinary people but also by officials, to delete what they view as extremist content.
The head of the parliamentary Committee on Information Policy, Andrey Svintsov, announced that over the past week, Telegram has blocked some 230,000 channels and pieces of information violating the law.
Earlier, the Telegram channel Baza reported that Roskomnadzor is preparing to begin blocking Durov’s messenger completely on April 1. It quoted unidentified sources from several government agencies.
With more than 93 million users in Russia, Telegram is the second most popular messaging app in the country after WhatsApp, which had over 94 million monthly users before Roskomnadzor deleted its domain from its DNS servers.