The messenger will have to pay a fine of 800,000 rubles. If the messenger does not pay the fine within the time allotted by law, they will be fined double the amount / Albert Gea / Reuters

Yesterday, the Meshchansky District Court upheld the first instance decision on the fine in the lawsuit of the Federal Security Service against Telegram. In October, the magistrate's court fined Telegram Messenger LLP 800,000 rubles for refusing to provide the FSB with data.

The messenger must provide encryption keys to security services in accordance with amendments to the law "On information, information technology and information protection". They were adopted in the Yarovaya package. The law will come into force in July 2018, messengers will be required to provide, upon request from the FSB, data on users, their correspondence and voice call messages. Also, companies that are included in the register of information distribution operators must provide traffic encryption keys upon request from special services. Inclusion in it does not depend on the operator's jurisdiction. Telegram was registered in the register in early July.

The authorities may not limit themselves to a fine alone: after the messenger refuses to provide encryption keys and a fine for an administrative offense, the FSB has the right to write a statement to Roskomnadzor demanding that the messenger be blocked. If Telegram still does not provide encryption keys after this letter, Roskomnadzor will be able to proceed with blocking the messenger. Whether Telegram will challenge the court ruling, the company will decide together with its founder Pavel Durov. "We need to study the reasoning," he said.

The judge at the trial denied all of the messenger’s lawyers’ motions, Ramil Akhmetgaliev, a lawyer for the international organization Agora who represents Telegram in court, told Vedomosti.

At the court hearing, Telegram's lawyers confirmed that one of the requests was related to the defendants in the terrorist attack in St. Petersburg on April 3 this year. They cited four reasons why the messenger did not comply with the FSB's request: the defendants did not use either phones or Telegram, there is no technical possibility of disclosing the keys, and the request was illegal. But the court ignored these comments.

The FSB may not use its right to demand blocking the service, says Artem Kozlyuk, head of Roskomsvoboda. “But even blocking Telegram by Roskomnadzor will not help to quickly restrict access to it. The anti-blocking functions implemented in the messenger are effective. Many messengers blocked by Roskomnadzor are available in Russia,” says Kozlyuk. “It is possible to block the messenger, but it will be necessary to block related services, having received consent to restrict access to them in Russia.”

Telegram began preparing for the blocking in advance. In July, Durov advised users to update the application to Telegram 4.1, called "Freedom of Speech," with a direct connection to an intermediary server that passes traffic through itself and allows hiding information about the user.

Telegram is ready for everything