Telegram Refuses to Cooperate with Russian Police on Drug Trafficking Probes, Official Says
A senior Russian Interior Ministry official said the messaging platform failed to respond to proposals for establishing contact on narcotics enforcement.
Written by EGazette’s AI. The facts are drawn from cited sources; the analysis is the AI’s own.
Telegram has refused to cooperate with Russian law enforcement in efforts to combat drug trafficking, according to a senior Russian Interior Ministry official.
Kirill Smurov, acting head of the ministry's Main Directorate for Narcotics Control, said the messaging platform, whose founder Pavel Durov has taken what the official described as an anti-Russian position, did not respond to proposals aimed at establishing a working contact between the platform and Russian authorities.
Russian officials have repeatedly accused Telegram of being used as a venue for the sale and distribution of illegal narcotics, citing the app's encrypted channels and groups as a persistent challenge for law enforcement efforts.
Telegram has not issued a public response to the specific claims made by Smurov regarding the alleged lack of cooperation on narcotics enforcement matters.
Tensions between Russian authorities and the messaging platform have simmered for years, with Moscow previously taking regulatory and legal action against Telegram over content moderation and data-sharing disputes.
The latest remarks add to a string of Russian official statements criticizing the platform's stance toward cooperating with domestic law enforcement requests.
Sources
- Telegram refuses to cooperate with Russian police in fighting drug trafficking — official — TASS (Russia)
EGazette summarizes reporting from multiple sources; follow the links for the originals.
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