Is it safe in Russia to buy Telegram Stars or Premium after Durov’s terrorist designation? Here’s what lawyers say.
Adding Telegram founder Pavel Durov to the list of terrorists and extremists kept by Rosfinmonitoring — Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service — does not restrict Telegram itself, the agency’s press service told the Russian financial news outlet Frank Media.
Rosfinmonitoring’s designation requires financial institutions to freeze Durov’s personal assets and transactions, but that requirement does not extend to Telegram as a legal entity.
Several people shared the agency’s response, including Ekaterina Mizulina, who heads the Safe Internet League and has nearly a million followers on Telegram. “Translating into Russian: you can buy Stars, gifts, Premium, and other digital items on the platform,” Mizulina wrote.
Media lawyer Svetlana Kuzevanova told the Russian business daily Vedomosti that buying premium subscriptions, placing ads, or displaying Telegram’s logo would be banned only if Telegram itself were designated extremist — a status it does not currently hold. Lawyers polled by the Russian security services-linked Telegram channel Baza and the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestiia offered the same assessment. Not every lawyer agreed, however.
Attorney Dmitry Yakubovsky advised Telegram users to steer clear of just one thing — donating to Durov himself, including paying in “stars” to send him a personal message. Attorney Anna Minenkova told the Russian business daily Kommersant that Durov’s mere presence on Rosfinmonitoring’s list of terrorists and extremists “creates substantial legal and financial risks” for purchases within Telegram’s ecosystem.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, announced on July 29 that Pavel Durov had been charged with aiding terrorist activity for failing to remove Telegram channels and bots that the security service says are used to coordinate terrorist attacks and sabotage in Russia. Rosfinmonitoring added Durov to its list of terrorists and extremists the following day, July 30.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].
To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.