Telegram, along with Google, YouTube, and Meta, left in the dark over dropped fines in Russia
Telegram Messenger has expressed its confusion over the dropped fines imposed on it and other prominent technology companies in Russia. However, the company clarified that it lacks any assets, offices, or employees in the country.
Fines imposed by Russian courts on Alphabet’s Google and YouTube, Metal, TikTok and Telegram appear to have been settled because the companies are no longer registered as debtors in a database of state bailiffs, online records showed this week.
“Telegram has no assets, offices, employees or equipment in Russia,” a Telegram spokesperson told Reuters on Friday. “Without a presence there, we don’t have visibility into why Telegram and other companies were fined.”
Telegram noted that some Russian news outlets had reported that the fines may have been lifted because bailiffs could not find assets that could be seized as a coercive measure.
Russia has been at odds with foreign tech companies over content it deems illegal and a failure to store user data locally in deepening disputes that escalated after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Telegram is widely used in Russia both for sending messages and as a news source. Its founder and CEO Pavel Durov left Russia in 2014 after losing control of his previous company and now holds dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France.
