[_trackno5]

How would that make any difference if the traffic is end to end encrypted, though?

Maybe they do something with the metadata, but so can every other messaging service.

This paranoia that everything is linked to Russia is just nuts.

[jruohonen]

Right. If you speak Russian and actually look at what is happening in Telegram, you'd know better. If I was a dissident there and my adversary would be SVR/GRU, I surely wouldn't call it paranoia.