Russia Blocks Telegram App

Russia began on Monday banning the Telegram app. (AFP)
Russia began on Monday banning the Telegram app. (AFP)
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Russia Blocks Telegram App

Russia began on Monday banning the Telegram app. (AFP)
Russia began on Monday banning the Telegram app. (AFP)

Russia began on Monday blocking the Telegram app after it refused to give the security services access to private conversations.

"Roskomnadzor has received the ruling of (Moscow's) Tagansky court to block Telegram's services on Russian territory. This information was sent to providers on Monday," Russia's communications watchdog said in a statement.

The service, set up by a Russian entrepreneur, has more than 200 million global users and is ranked as the world's ninth most popular mobile messaging app.

Telegram has repeatedly refused to comply with requests to give the Federal Security Service (FSB) access to its users' encrypted messages.

The FSB has said it needs such access to guard against security threats such as terrorist attacks. But Telegram said compliance would violate users' privacy.

Some Russian internet providers began blocking Telegram on Monday afternoon.

"Russian authorities have begun blocking Telegram. The service could be unstable without a VPN. We will inform you on the developing situation," the messaging app notified its Russian users.

Around 10 activists were arrested after demonstrating outside the FSB headquarters against the move, Maria Alekhina, a member of the Russian protest punk group Pussy Riot, told Ekho Moskvy radio.

The Kremlin's press service told journalists on Monday that it will be switching to ICQ, a 1990s chat service now owned by billionaire Alisher Usmanov's Mail.ru, to communicate with them.

"It is telling that authoritarian governments (e.g., Russia) are trying to block Telegram over encryption, but are more relaxed when it comes to other encrypted messaging apps," Pavel Durov, the app's maverick creator -- dubbed Russia's Mark Zuckerberg -- wrote on Twitter.

Writing on Vkontakte, the social media platform Durov founded that is now under state control, he said the decision harms Russia's national security as users will switch to WhatsApp and Facebook which are "controlled from the US."

"We believe the ban is anti-constitutional and will continue to defend the right of Russians to private messaging," said Durov, who left Russia in 2014 and is now based in Dubai.

Durov has long said he will reject any attempt by the country's security services to gain backdoor access to the app.

The ban followed a long-running battle between authorities and Telegram, which has a reputation for securely encrypted communications, as Moscow pushes to increase surveillance of internet activities.

Telegram, a free application that lets people exchange messages, stickers, photos and videos in groups of up to 5,000 people, has attracted more than 200 million users since its launch by Durov and his brother Nikolai in 2013.

Russia has acted to curb internet freedoms as social media have become the main way to organize demonstrations.



Iran Discloses New Details of Israeli Attempt to Assassinate Heads of Three Govt. Branches

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on Saturday evening (Iranian Presidency) 
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on Saturday evening (Iranian Presidency) 
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Iran Discloses New Details of Israeli Attempt to Assassinate Heads of Three Govt. Branches

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on Saturday evening (Iranian Presidency) 
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on Saturday evening (Iranian Presidency) 

The Fars news agency on Sunday disclosed new details of an assassination attempt that targeted a high-level meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council attended by heads of the three government branches and high-ranking officials during the 12-day war between Tehran and Tel Aviv.

Iran has launched a comprehensive investigation into the assassination attempt, and there is suspicion that an agent was involved, informed sources told the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated news agency.

Fars said that in the attack, “some officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, suffered minor injuries to their legs while leaving the meeting,” and added that they escaped through “an emergency hatch that had been planned in advance.”

The speaker of Iran's parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, were also said to have been in the meeting.

According to Fars, the attack occurred on Monday, June 16, at the lower levels of a secure government facility in western Tehran.

Fars said the attack was modeled after an Israeli plan to assassinate Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, involving the launch of six bombs or missiles aimed at entry and exit points to block evacuation routes and disrupt ventilation.

Following the explosions, power was cut to the targeted floor. However, Iranian officials reportedly managed to escape through a pre-designated emergency hatch.

In an interview last week with Tucker Carlson, the political commentator, Pezeshkian accused Israel of trying to assassinate him but did not admit to having being injured. “They did try, yes... They acted accordingly, but they failed,” he said.

Hours after the Fars news agency published its report, a spokesman of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council told the Nour News agency that “the Israeli attack on a secret meeting of the Council at a highly protected site, attended by heads of authorities and senior military and political leaders, set a dangerous precedent and sounded the alarm about the possibility of a security breach and the need to strengthen protection at the highest levels.”

“The attack is a dangerous threat to Iran not only in its timing and location, but also in the fact that it targeted one of the most secret and important meetings of the Iranian state,” the news agency wrote.

Vahid Jalili, the chief for cultural affairs and policy evolution at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and the brother of Saeed Jalili, Khamenei’s representative in the Supreme National Security Council, was the first to speak about the attack.

He said the meeting of heads of the government branches on June16 was targeted by Israeli attacks just hours before the missile strike on the broadcasting building.

In a related development, the wife of Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ air force, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Iran during the 12-day war, said her husband received a phone call from his workplace, and headed there before he was killed.

In an interview with the Jamaran website, affiliated to the Khomeini Foundation, she said “Amir returned home from a ceremony, slept for about half an hour, before receiving the phone call.”

She added, “Our house was attacked after the dawn prayer.”