The Important Stories investigation alleges that Telegram's infrastructure in Russia is linked to companies that service FSB facilities. In response, Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn told UNIAN: "As a global company, Telegram has contracts with dozens of different service providers around the world. However, none of these providers has access to Telegram's data or sensitive infrastructure. All Telegram servers are owned by the company and maintained by its employees. Mr. Vedeneyev has never worked at Telegram. Unauthorized access is impossible. Throughout its history, Telegram has never handed over private messages to third parties, and its encryption has never been cracked."
Investigation's Claims
Important Stories reports that in 2018, Telegram Corp transferred the rights and obligations for setting up infrastructure to Global Network Management (GNM), a company registered in Antigua and Barbuda. According to the authors, the agreement on behalf of GNM was signed by Vladimir Vedeneyev, who at the time held the position of financial director at Telegram. GNM provided the messenger with more than 10,000 IP addresses, many of which previously belonged to the St. Petersburg-based company Globalnet. The investigators claim that Globalnet has ties to the Kremlin and the FSB, and that Vedeneyev was its beneficiary, but in 2024 he transferred the company to relatives. In 2022, Globalnet, at the request of Roskomnadzor, installed systems for monitoring user traffic, the authors note.
According to Vedeneyev himself, half of GNM's employees are in Russia, and the company's office is located in St. Petersburg. Another St. Petersburg company, Electrontelecom, provided Telegram with 5,000 IP addresses, the journalists found. From Electrontelecom's internal financial documentation for 2024, which Important Stories obtained, it follows that one of the company's most important government clients is the FSB.
Data and Encryption
The UNIAN publication also cites expert assessments. Former Durov colleague Anton Rozenberg claims that 98% of the messenger's users communicate in regular chats, messages from which are decrypted and stored on Telegram's servers. Digital security expert Michal Wozniak explained that when an encrypted message is created, an unencrypted device identifier, auth_key_id, is added to it, which allows the server side to identify the device and select a key for decryption. According to him, Russia operates SORM—a system through which special services monitor phone calls and internet activity, and every provider is required to have it in its infrastructure.
Telegram rejects these claims, insisting that service providers do not have access to the company's data and infrastructure.
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