FROM “TERRORIST” TO “PARTNER”: TELEGRAM FOUNDER DUROV MOCKS RUSSIA’S DOUBLE STANDARD
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has responded with sarcasm after reports that he was added to a Russian terrorist-related register, posting a meme that highlights what he sees as the Kremlin’s double standard.
The image contrasts two pictures.
On the left is Durov, labeled “terrorist collaborator.”
On the right is Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meeting with representatives of the Taliban, captioned “dear partners.”
The joke points to a dramatic shift in Russia’s policy.
For years, the Taliban was officially designated as a terrorist organization by Russia after seizing power in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Despite that designation, Moscow gradually increased contacts with the group following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, hosting multiple diplomatic meetings and referring to Taliban officials as partners in regional security and economic discussions. Russia has since moved toward normalizing relations with the Afghan authorities.
Against that backdrop, Durov’s post questions how someone behind a messaging platform can be portrayed as a security threat while Russian officials openly engage with a group they themselves had long classified as terrorists.
The dispute between Durov and Russian authorities has been building for years.
Durov founded Telegram after leaving Russia and has consistently argued that the platform should protect user privacy and resist government demands for broad access to communications. That stance has repeatedly put him at odds with authorities in multiple countries. More recently, he has faced legal scrutiny in France over allegations related to Telegram’s moderation and criminal misuse of the platform, while continuing to deny that Telegram intentionally facilitates criminal activity.
His latest post is less about himself than about exposing what he views as an inconsistency.
Whether one agrees with Durov or not, the comparison resonates because it highlights a visible contradiction: Russia has spent years condemning certain groups as terrorists, yet geopolitical interests have led it to engage with some of those same actors diplomatically. The meme is Durov’s way of asking a simple question—who exactly gets to decide who is a “terrorist,” and when does that label change?