Russia has initiated a criminal case against the founder of Telegram on charges of “supporting terrorism”.

“Russia has initiated a criminal case against me on the charge of “supporting terrorism”. “Every day, the authorities prepare new excuses to limit access to Telegram for Russians, while at the same time suppressing the right to privacy and free speech,” Durov wrote on his Telegram channel.

Russia is trying to block Telegram, which has more than 1 billion active users and is widely used in both Russia and Ukraine. Reuters notes that this is how Russia is trying to make hundreds of thousands of Russians users of the state-supported alternative called MAX.

Russian authorities are promoting the use of MAX as a national alternative to WhatsApp and Telegram, saying they are not subject to Russian laws.

Experts claim that MAX does not offer a protective level of encryption, and it is likely that the data will be released to authorities upon request.