Pavel Durov has deleted his VChK-OGPU channel for the second time by order of the Russian authorities. (Or rather, this time, it was blocked for doxxing and extortion.) This happened again at night, and again after Durov's visit to the UAE. How these events are connected and what the GRU and Usmanov, who is hunting the channel's creators, have to do with it will be explained shortly. Durov no longer hides the fact that he coordinates his activities with Russian security forces. Initially, we were directly threatened that if we raised the issue of Russia's corruption of the head of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Tulia Ekson, again, we would "leave Telegram." However, this is not the first such threat. There are many other uncomfortable topics. Yesterday, one of the channel's authors and friends was detained in St. Petersburg. The next day, Durov, a great defender of freedom of speech in Romania and Moldova, removed the VChK-OGPU channel from Telegram. In fact, the entire fabricated story of fighting doxxing and extortion was launched to remove the VChK-OGPU, Kachur's channel, and Blackmirror (the main irritants of the Russian authorities and intelligence agencies).
In April, Durov complied with the Russian authorities' decision and quietly removed the VChK-OGPU channel, then brazenly lied that Telegram had nothing to do with it. However, the SIM card used to register the channel remains blocked from accessing Telegram. No one except the channel's management could have done this.
The VChK-OGPU continued its work, which directly angered Russian security officials, oligarchs, and intelligence agencies. They did not abandon the idea of removing the channel from Telegram. And then Durov, who has recently gained considerable leverage over the Russian intelligence services and Usmanov himself, came up with a "fight against doxxing and extortion" to cover his own ass this time. He even opened a hotline.
On Telegram, you can buy any kind of drug in any quantity, order murders and arson, and buy child pornography—it's the main recruiting platform for the Russian intelligence services. But Durov doesn't open any corresponding hotlines. Dozens of his friends and thousands of friends of friends are openly engaging in scamming on Telegram on an astronomical scale. Complaints pour in by the hundreds of thousands, but no one gets a response from Telegram.
Why is the "fight against doxxing" a sham, only needed to shut down three channels?
No one even read the messages we sent to this hotline back in July. Why? Because Durov isn't interested in cases of real extortion. For appearance's sake, Durov took down the fake VChK-OGPU channel and several related channels (which were openly engaged in extortion) in August. These channels were run by former FSB officers Shcheglov and black PR specialists Chernoivan and Grekov. But this was all for show. While Kachur and Blackmirror's channels are immediately blocked when they are relaunched on Telegram, Shcheglov, Grekov, and Chernoivan quickly created a new network of extortion channels, the core of which was the fake Kompromat Group channel. The owner of the real Kompromat Group channel fell into the hands of Russian authorities after a series of posts about Crimean leader Aksyonov, after which the channel was shut down. And Telegram has shown no reaction to the fake extortion channels. Because Durov had no intention of combating real extortion. He had only one goal: taking down the channels of Kachur, Blackmirror, and the VChK-OGPU. We encourage readers and subscribers to ask Pavel Durov relevant questions about the fate of the Cheka-OGPU.
We will continue to cover the story of how the decision to demolish the Cheka-OGPU was made, now on our website, Rucriminal.info. It is blocked in Russia, but accessible via VPN.
How does Pavel Durov's censorship and channel deletion mechanism work, and why does this "sacrament" occur after his visits to the UAE? We'll use the April events as an example, when Telegram was first shut down by the Cheka-OGPU. According to a source, the situation was as follows.
March 12, 2025. Moscow. A meeting of interesting participants: Dmitry Medvedev's head of security, Mikhail Mikheev; his assistant from the Federal Security Service, Gruzdev; an FSB officer from the 9th Directorate, Denis Parshin; GRU-linked businessman Musa Keligov (pictured here with his friend "Stepanych," First Deputy Head of the GRU, Vladimir Alekseev); a representative of oligarch Alisher Usmanov; a representative of FSB First Deputy Director Sergei Korolev; and so on.
Many pressing issues were discussed: personnel, sanctions evasion, management issues related to the seized Antipinsky Oil Refinery. The long-standing issue of dismantling the Cheka-OGPU arose, a topic that had already become a source of concern for the Kremlin, the FSB, and especially the GRU, whose representatives even attempted to physically eliminate the channel's founder. It's clear that Usmanov, Kirill Dmitriev, and other Telegram and Durov sponsors would personally request the dismantling of the Cheka-OGPU, but they are "great" and would never approach Durov personally with such a request. And then, according to a source, Keligov declared that he would resolve this issue; he knows how to influence Durov personally. However, this requires Durov to fly to the UAE, as raising such topics in France, where Durov is under embargo, is unsafe.
The Cheka-OGPU does not know for certain who Keligov used to influence Durov. It is known that Keligov, through the GRU, frequently and closely communicates with Ali Mohammed Al Shamsi, Secretary General of the Supreme National Security Council of the UAE.
But there could have been simpler petitioners. Durov has recently been closely surrounded by scammers, PR specialists, fixers, and other people connected to the Russian intelligence services and the presidential administration.
Indeed, as soon as Durov arrived in the UAE with the permission of French investigators, the Cheka-OGPU was removed from Telegram.
Now the situation has repeated itself. Durov arrives in the UAE, and after that, the Cheka-OGPU is blocked.
