After years of unsuccessful efforts
to ban Telegram in Russia, local authorities have finally decided to
cancel the ban on the major encrypted messenger in the country.


Russia’s
Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information
Technology and Mass Media, also known as Roskomnadzor, has officially
lifted the two-year-long ban on Telegram.


In an official statement
on Thursday, Roskomnadzor said that the authority has removed
requirements restricting the access to the Telegram messenger in
agreement with the Prosecutor General of Russia.


Announcing the news, Roskomnadzor outlined that the regulator commends Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s
willingness to confront terrorism and extremism. The announcement
apparently comes in response to a recent statement from Durov claiming
that the Telegram team has been actively combating terrorism and
extremism on the messenger while ensuring user privacy.


In a June 4 post,
Telegram's CEO noted that the company is preventing thousands of public
statements encouraging violence each month. Durov wrote:


“Each
month, Telegram team is now preventing tens of thousands of attempts to
distribute public incitement to violence and terror. [...] Telegram has
developed a system preventing global terrorist acts while ensuring
privacy of correspondence in line with Telegram’s privacy policy.”