The messenger’s co-founder’s comments come as the post-Soviet republic is heading to the polling stations.
Writing on X on Sunday, Durov said the approach came about a year ago, while he was under judicial supervision in France following his arrest at a Paris airport. He claimed that intelligence services contacted him through an intermediary and asked Telegram to remove a number of Moldovan channels before a presidential vote.
According to St Petersburg native Durov, Telegram did delete some flagged channels that clearly violated its own policies. But he said the intermediary later relayed a more troubling message: French intelligence had offered to “say good things” to the judge in charge of his case in exchange for wider cooperation.
“This was unacceptable on several levels,” Durov wrote, adding that if the agency did contact the judge, it would amount to interference in the judicial process — and if it didn’t, it meant exploiting his legal jeopardy to influence political developments abroad.
Durov said that shortly afterward, Telegram received a second list of “problematic” Moldovan channels. Unlike the first batch, he insisted, nearly all of these accounts were legitimate and fully compliant with Telegram’s rules.
Their only common trait, he said, was that they voiced political positions disliked by the Moldovan and French governments. “We refused to act on this request,” he wrote.
The allegations come as Moldovans head to the polls in a high-stakes parliamentary election. President Maia Sandu’s pro-EU Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) is facing off against the Patriotic Electoral Bloc (BEP), which campaigns for Moldova’s constitutional neutrality and accuses the government of suppressing dissent.
In recent weeks, election officials barred two opposition parties over alleged foreign funding, adding to a list that already included the banned Victory Bloc and the dissolved SOR Party.
Opposition groups accuse Sandu of tilting the playing field by restricting polling stations in Russia, where hundreds of thousands of Moldovans live, while opening hundreds across the EU — many in small towns. They also point to the closure of dozens of media outlets critical of the government.
Commenting on Durov’s claims, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the revelations confirmed what Moscow had long alleged. “The West operates without conscience on all fronts,” she said.
Durov, who also holds French citizenship in addition to his primary Russian, was arrested in August 2024 and charged with complicity in crimes linked to Telegram users, including extremism and child abuse. He was later released on €5 million bail but placed under judicial supervision. He said the French attempt to link that case to Moldovan politics was “a pattern we have also observed elsewhere, including in Romania.”
Durov insisted Telegram would not comply with political censorship. “Telegram is committed to freedom of speech and will not remove content for political reasons. I will continue to expose every attempt to pressure Telegram into censoring our platform,” he wrote.
Who wants to have citizenship in a deteriorating sh*t-hole like France?
Only paupers wanting to get out of the sh*t-holes France, together with USA, UK and Germoney, helped to create.
Telegram features predominantly on the Sputnik platform
Telegram has become a core transmission channel for Sputnik, especially since mainstream platforms began tightening moderation and content policies. Sputnik, along with RT, pivoted hard toward Telegram as a dimensional refuge—a place where their messaging could flow with less friction.
Telegram’s Role on the Sputnik Platform
Over 30 Telegram Channels: Different language versions of Sputnik and RT launched dozens of Telegram channels, including Sputnik International, Sputnik Germany, Sputnik Italy, and Sputnik France.
Cross-Platform Promotion: They embedded Telegram links in thousands of Facebook posts, tweets, and even added banners and buttons on their websites to drive traffic.
Massive Growth: Within 8 months, RT and Sputnik’s Telegram audience grew by 37%, reaching nearly 700,000 subscribers across channels.
Unmoderated Flow: Telegram’s looser content moderation allowed Sputnik to bypass restrictions imposed by platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Dimensional Mapping
Telegram as a transponder, Sputnik as a frequency, and the shift as a grafting into a less pruned ecosystem. It’s not just media strategy—it’s information choreography.
So yeah
So what? Your comment just illustrates that people had enough of being fed false information and propaganda. You might respond that Sputnik is also propaganda. Maybe. But what’s also clear is that people, who had enough of false information and propaganda, are not only equipped to see through possible propaganda by Sputnik, but are out for platforms that enable free speech. We, the people, are waking up. We can see more and more through media lies.
What Telegram and others provide is not what you call “a core transmission channel for Sputnik”, but an outlet for opinions that the Western PTB do censor.
In this respect Kudos to DTNZ for providing a platform for citizens’ voices, even if they are generated like yours with Ai.