
Another article written on speculation
The carefully worded undertone of the article (and the subheader) seeks to imply that Telegram is directly or indirectly controlled or influenced by the Kremlin.
To this I can say that I have personal knowledge from 2.5 years ago that the Durovs' relationship with the Kremlin was mutually hostile, same as that of other like entrepreneurs, such as Mr Volozh.
Compare that with the relationship of US social media giants (in particular Alphabet) with their government. I realise that Britain has always considered Russia its enemy, but is it really necessary to twist the scarce facts available into baseless speculation every time that Russia is involved?
PS: Not defending Telegram or any other "social media" platform that is centrally controlled and totally or partially closed-source. Online messaging provides generally poor assurances of security, but if needing to use, self-hosted XMPP with OTR enabled is one of the few reasonable ways to go (and only for low-level security requirements where leaking some meta-data is not fatal).