The Kremlin urged the owner of Telegram, Pavel Durov, to be more “careful”, after the messaging application allegedly contributed to the recruitment of the attackers from the Crocus concert hall in Moscow, Reuters reports on Thursday, quoted by Agerpres.
Telegram, which is currently based in Dubai, was founded by Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after losing control of his previous company. Born in Russia, Durov, aged 39, lives in Dubai and has dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France, according to Telegram.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media website Life that there were no plans to block the messaging app, which is an important means of disseminating news in Russia and the world, but that Durov should be more carefully
“We would expect more attention from Pavel Durov, because this unique and technologically phenomenal resource, which practically grew before the eyes of our generation, is increasingly becoming a tool at hand terrorists, used for terrorist purposes,” Peskov said.
The Russian press agency RIA wrote that the attackers were recruited through a radical channel on the Telegram platform, a channel that would belong to the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K) group.
