In the new article, Anin repeated accusations from June 2025 against Vladimir Vedeneyev, owner of GNM, which provides part of Telegram's server infrastructure. According to Anin, Vedeneyev 'has a handler in the FSB with whom he has long cooperated and shared information.'
The text is based on a report by Symbolic Software about a potential vulnerability in the messenger related to the auth_key_id parameter. Important Stories summarizes the 90-page report and acknowledges that 'truly global surveillance would require access to Telegram's infrastructure in various countries and across different data transmission routes.' Anin then adds on his own behalf that such access is allegedly 'held by Vladimir Vedeneyev, who services almost all of the messenger's network infrastructure in countries around the world.'
Anin's Version
Anin calls the method of obtaining the report the key point of the article. According to him, after the investigation was published, Vedeneyev filed a lawsuit in Switzerland, where he lives and holds a residence permit. In the lawsuit, as Anin writes, Vedeneyev does not dispute the claims from the investigation but demands the removal of an interview in which he admits to cooperating with the FSB. While reviewing the materials of the Swiss case, Anin and his publication, according to him, discovered the Symbolic Software expertise that Vedeneyev had attached, 'apparently hoping that the experts would refute the technical conclusions of the text. However, they confirmed them.'
Vedeneyev's Version
As Vedeneyev told Sota, the court situation is different. He commissioned the expertise himself, wanting to analyze whether Anin's accusations about the insecurity of Telegram's software might have any basis.
According to Vedeneyev, the lawsuit in Switzerland was filed last summer solely in connection with Anin's violation of journalistic ethics: Important Stories recorded and published a conversation with him without Vedeneyev's consent. Anin confirmed this, citing the public interest of the material. According to Vedeneyev, the court promptly issued an interim measure obliging Anin to withhold the video until a final decision; since summer 2025, Anin has not complied with the ruling. In March, according to Vedeneyev, Anin's lawyers sent a motion to extend the proceedings, claiming that he had allegedly only accidentally learned about it in February 2026. The motion stated that the power of attorney for the lawyers was issued in March 2026, but the attached power of attorney, according to Vedeneyev, was drawn up for Anin's defense in court with Vedeneyev in August 2025. Anin is represented by eight Swiss lawyers who, according to Vedeneyev, took no action until March.
In parallel, according to Vedeneyev, a lawsuit against OCCRP, which disseminated Anin's accusations, was filed in Virginia (USA).
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