Telegram could not comply with the FSB demand due to the delay of Russian Post

Compliance with the FSB requirements by the Telegram messenger is not always possible due to the unsatisfactory performance of the Russian Post, lawyer Pavel Chikov reports in his Telegram channel .

“On July 12, the FSB asked Telegram to send user correspondence by July 19. But Russian Post delivered the letter only on July 21. And they don’t know the reason. The regime will collapse because of Russian Post, remember these words,” wrote the lawyer who published the document with an apology from the post office for improper performance of the service.

The message indicates that a registered letter from the FSB of the Russian Federation addressed to the general director of the Telegram messenger arrived at the post office on July 14.

- The head of Russian Post explained the low quality of services by a lack of staff

In the document published by the lawyer, Russian Post does not explain the reasons for the delay in delivery of the letter. The operator also ignored the question from the security services about why the notification that the registered letter had been delivered to the addressee was not delivered.

“Due to the fact that the notification f.S5 is sent without a note, it is not possible to establish the reason for the non-delivery of the notification to the sender. We apologize to you for the improper performance of the service provided,” says the letter signed by the head of the Russian Post network management service. Maria Dudenkova.

In a comment to RBC, Pavel Chikov said that “separate processes” would not be initiated against Russian Post. “The issue of the legality of the FSB’s demands will be the subject of consideration by the Meshchansky District Court of the complaint against the decision against Telegram in a case of an administrative offense. The issue will be assessed by the court, but within the framework of a case of an administrative offense,” the lawyer clarified.

On October 16, the Magistrate Court of the Meshchansky District of Moscow fined Telegram Messenger LLP (London) 800 thousand rubles for refusing to comply with the FSB’s request to provide information for decoding user messages.

Judge Yulia Danilchik found the company guilty of committing an offense under Part 2.1 of Art. 13.31 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (“Failure by the organizer of the dissemination of information on the Internet to provide the federal executive body in the field of security with the information necessary for decoding received, transmitted, delivered and (or) processed electronic messages”).

On September 27, Durov spoke about the notifications the company received from the FSB, from which it follows that the special service drew up a protocol on an administrative offense on Telegram, since the messenger team did not provide the authorities with information to “decoding received, transmitted, delivered and processed messages” according to the law “On Information.” information technologies and information protection."

The service is obliged to transfer encryption keys to the FSB, since at the end of June it was included in the register of organizers of information dissemination. Due to failure to comply with this requirement, the company faced an administrative fine imposed by the court in the amount of 800 thousand to a million rubles.

Now Roskomnadzor can issue an order to Telegram to eliminate the violation for which a fine has been imposed. If the company does not comply with it, then Roskomnadzor may begin blocking the service. However, it is possible that this blocking will not affect the work of Telegram in Russia, since back in the summer the messenger developers introduced tools to bypass blocking. In addition, at the end of September, Durov said that pressure from the authorities of Russia and Iran will not interfere with the work of Telegram in these countries.