Telegrams two recent Initial Coin Offering (ICO) rounds – which raised a combined $1.7 bln – are the reason behind the ban of the messaging service, as opposed to the version provided by Russian officials, which cites Pavel Durovs refusal to provide the authorities with a way to decrypt user data, local news outlet RBK reports Friday, April 20.
According to a copy of a letter acquired by RBK, allegedly from employee Roman Antipkin of the Federal Security Service (FSB) 12th center, which supervises the System for Operative Investigative Activities (SORM), the possibility of a completely uncontrolled financial system is what reportedly led to the block:
Colleagues, the story is not at all about this, you don’t understand! The story is not about the [encryption] keys and terrorism […] Pavel Durov has decided to become the new Mavrodi (Russian financial fraudster). Having launched his own crypto, we will get a completely uncontrolled financial system in Russia. And this is not Bitcoin for the marginalized, it will be simple, reliable and uncontrolled. This is a threat to the security of the country […] All the drugs, the cash, the organ trade will go through the Pavels crypto, and he will say, I have nothing to do with it, you should ban words, thats what terrorists use.
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