Russia vs Telegram!

The real reason that prompted the Russian authorities to block the messenger may be plans of its owner Pavel Durov to launch its own crypto currency.

According to the publication, the unsuccessful blocking of the messenger in Russia, which has been accompanied for several days by a passing blocking of IP addresses of cloud services of Amazon, Google and other providers, was actively discussed in the last days between the employees of the 12th FSB center (supervises, among other issues, SORM) and representatives of other relevant departments.

In particular, on April 18, an employee of the 12th FSB center, Roman Antipkin, sent a letter to colleagues explaining that the true reason for the blockage of Telegram in Russia was the desire of Pavel Durov to launch a "completely uncontrolled financial system" on the basis of the messenger.

"Colleagues, but history is not at all about it, as you do not understand! History is not about keys and terrorism. Pasha Durov decided to become a new Mavrodi. Having launched our crypt, we in Russia will receive a completely uncontrolled financial system. And this is not bitcoin for marginalized people, it will be simple, reliable and uncontrollable. This is a threat to the security of the country. All the drugs, naked, trade bodies will go through Pashin kriptu, and he will say: "I have nothing to do with it, forbid words, they are used by terrorists," says a letter signed by Roman Antipkin.

The text of the letter is at the disposal of RBC, its authenticity was confirmed by a federal official and top manager of one of the telecom operators. The content of this letter is also a sign of an interlocutor of RBC in one of the non-governmental organizations.

About Roman Antipkin, market participants and officials with whom RBC spoke that he repeatedly represented the 12th FSB center at various meetings. In particular, on the implementation of the "law of Yarovoi."

The intention of Pavel Durov to launch his own blockbuster platform called Telegram Open Network (TON) with the Gram crypto currency became known in January 2018. The project was described in detail in a 132-page document, signed by Nikolai Durov, the technical director of Telegram and Pavel Durov's brother. The creators intend to integrate the payment system on the basis of its own TON broker into Telegram's messenger, and in the future to introduce it into other services and social networks.

Following the results of two closed preliminary rounds of placing the tokens of the new Telegram Open Network platform, the messenger attracted about $ 1.7 billion.