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by eps 3115 days ago
Got a source for the first claim?

Second would've been a red flag if the Russian gvmnt would've been routinely blocking other chat systems.

3 comments

Russian government is routinely blocking other chat systems. LINE, CacaoTalk and WeChat are currently banned.
>LINE, CacaoTalk and WeChat are currently banned.

No they are NOT banned, I just tried Line & WeChat.

Maybe you got lucky with your ISP, or the apps learned to work around the block. My home ISP definitely blocks Line website. There are plenty of news sites reporting on the blocks, such as [1]

[1] http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/08/technology/wechat-blocked-ru...

I have checked blocklist, indeed line.me is blocked[0]. I have tried to run application.

[0] https://reestr.rublacklist.net/rec/170456/

In the very end of the article, there are photos of the Telegraph LLC, the company behind Telegram, just a floor below the currently government owned VKontakte
Re: servers - there are several paragraphs in the middle detailing Telegram's DC move to London. So your server farm claim is still unconfirmed.

Re: the office - from what I gather, they maintain a shell company in Russia that sits in the former Telegram office. The photo merely shows that they may have a large office space, which may have been inherited by this company from their VK split for all we know. I really can't tell from this post if they do any development in their Moscow office.

Their office is in St. Petersburg, not Moscow. Googling for a few minutes will give you plenty of evidence that they do.
The first claim? The "hounded by Russia" one? I'm not familiar with the story, but some quick searching reveals this:

https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/16/telegram-fined-by-russia...

The prime source seems to be founder Durov's social-media posts, retelling his communications to/from regulators.

No, the OP's claim, not theirs.

Re: a huge office & a server farm.