Russian lawmaker warns that paying for Telegram Premium could mean funding Durov amid his terrorism case, yet has a Premium subscription of his own

Source: RTVI

Andrei Svintsov, who serves as deputy chair of the Information Policy Committee in Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, told the Russian-language broadcaster RTVI that the criminal case charging Telegram founder Pavel Durov with aiding terrorism does not prohibit Russians from using the messenger, but that they would do best to drop the paid subscriptions within it.

“I’m certain that if someone uses this messaging app, there’s nothing criminal about that. I just don’t recommend any new paid subscriptions, any purchases of TON cryptocurrency, and so on. That is, I don’t recommend sending money to Durov’s company. […] There was nothing illegal about those Premium accounts that were paid for long ago, and they can be used,” Svintsov said.

The independent Russian news outlet Verstka later found that Svintsov himself uses a Telegram Premium subscription, as do Andrei Lipov, head of Roskomnadzor; Maksut Shadayev, head of the Digital Development Ministry; and Vladimir Kirienko, CEO of VK.

Svintsov pushed back, saying he never bought Telegram Premium himself: “I didn’t set any of this up. […] Maybe one of my aides gave it to me as a gift — there’s a feature for that. I’m no expert on it. If I’ve broken any law, I’ll answer for it like any other citizen. I’ll drop the [premium subscription] if that’s technically possible,” he told Daily Storm.

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Russian lawmaker warns that paying for Telegram Premium could mean funding Durov amid his terrorism case, yet has a Premium subscription of his own

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Russian lawmaker warns that paying for Telegram Premium could mean funding Durov amid his terrorism case, yet has a Premium subscription of his own

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