Watchdog

Two prominent Russian journalists say they will sue their country's main security agency over its demand that Telegram hand over encryption keys enabling authorities to decipher encoded messages transmitted on the popular app.

The announcement by Oleg Kashin, an acerbic observer of Russia’s political landscape, and radio personality Aleksandr Plyushchev on October 25 comes less than two weeks after a Moscow court fined Telegram for refusing to provide its encryption keys to the Federal Security Service (FSB).

The messaging app, founded by enigmatic Russian tech mogul Pavel Durov but with developers now reportedly based in Dubai, has become a vibrant forum for political discussion in Russia, with prominent media outlets, journalists, and analysts maintaining popular channels.

The FSB has demanded that Telegram, which Durov and his brother founded in 2013 before its team "had to leave Russia due to local IT regulations," provide the app's encryption keys in order to comply with controversial counterterrorism laws that rights groups say violate privacy and can be used to stifle dissent.

Kashin said in the October 25 statement on his Telegram channel that he and Plyushchev believe that the FSB's demands on the messaging app "concern our right to confidential communication with sources."

"Trusting one another, my interlocutors and I always expect that our conversations won't end up in the hands of third parties," Kashin said. "And now, the Federal Security Service, using its special position in the government, is trying to violate our rights, and thereby harming all of society."

Tightening Grip

Russian authorities have increasingly tightened their grip on the country’s media landscape since President Vladimir Putin came to power nearly 18 years ago, leaving social-media networks and other digital forums as the country’s main outlets for freewheeling political debate.

But rights activists and media watchdogs accuse authorities of trying to rein in voices critical of the government online as well, often under the guise of countering extremism and terrorism. Senior Russian officials have dismissed these accusations as baseless.

Durov announced in 2014 that he had left Russia, saying he had sold his stake in VKontakte, the popular Russian-language social-networking site that he founded, after he refused to hand over personal data about Ukrainian opposition activists to the FSB.

He has said he intends to appeal the October 16 ruling by Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court fining Telegram 800,000 rubles ($14,000) over its refusal to provide its encryption keys to the FSB.

"The FSB's effort to get access to personal correspondence is an attempt to expand its influence at the expense of the constitutional rights of citizens," Durov wrote on VKontakte following the decision.

Kashin told RFE/RL in a telephone interview on October 25 that, while he has not seen eye-to-eye with Durov on many things, he is not "indifferent" to Telegram’s fate.

"I would really be unhappy if the contents of my communications, or other information I do not want to share, ended up in the hands of people I don’t trust," Kashin said.

Kashin, who suffered a brutal beating by assailants wielding metal rods in Moscow in 2010, and Plyushchev each have more than 17,000 subscribers to their respective Telegram channels.

'Precedent Setting'

Kashin told RFE/RL that he was in the process of finishing up the paperwork for the lawsuit, which he said would be filed with the Meshchansky court. He added, however, that given the FSB’s "special" place in Russia, he is not expecting the court to rule in his favor.

The Agora rights group, which is representing Telegram in its clash with the FSB, is slated to represent Kashin and Plyushchev in their lawsuit as well.

The lawyer assigned to the lawsuit, Damir Gainutdinov, told RFE/RL that the matter could be "precedent-setting."

"After the FSB demanded these so-called encryption keys, any Telegram user now has a right to appeal to the courts because divulging these algorithms and giving these back doors to security services threatens the privacy of communications of any user," Gainutdinov said.

Durov said last month that Telegram has around 10 million users in Russia.

Crimean Tatar leaders Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov, who were sentenced to prison by Russian courts on the occupied peninsula in September, have been released from custody and traveled to Turkey, Ukrainian officials, legislators, and lawyers said.

Umerov and Chiygoz were released on October 25, Ukrainian First Deputy Information Policy Minister Emine Dzheppar told RFE/RL.

Mustafa Dzhemilev, the veteran Crimean Tatar leader who is now a Ukrainian lawmaker, also told RFE/RL that Chiygoz and Umerov had been freed from Russian custody in Crimea and were on their way to Turkey.

A spokesman for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Svyatoslav Tseholko, later said on Facebook that they had arrived in Ankara.

"Two more hostages -- two political prisoners -- have obtained freedom," Nikolai Polozov, a lawyer for Chiygoz, said on Facebook.

The European Union called the development "good news" and demanded the immediate release of "all illegally detained Ukrainian citizens on the Crimean Peninsula and in Russia."

Dzhemilev told AFP he helped arrange the release by asking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to call for the activists' release in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Erdogan has pledged to support Crimea's Tatar minority even as he has cultivated closer ties with Moscow recently.

While the Crimean Tatar leaders themselves refused to ask Putin for a pardon, Dzhemilev told AFP, eventually an order came down from the Kremlin saying the two would be "freed on humanitarian grounds."

Rights groups and Western governments have condemned the convictions, calling their trials part of a campaign of pressure and abuse conducted by Russia since it occupied and seized control of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Kremlin critics say that Russia has targeted Crimean Tatars and others who opposed Moscow's takeover of the Black Sea peninsula, which followed the ouster of Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych by throngs of protesters in Kyiv.

Chiygoz was convicted of organizing an illegal demonstration and sentenced to eight years in prison on September 11 after what Amnesty International called a "sham trial."

Umerov was convicted of separatism on September 27 after a trial that Human Rights Watch called "ruthless retaliation" for his opposition to Moscow's takeover of the peninsula. He was sentenced to two years in a type of penitentiary called a colony settlement.

Polozov told RFE/RL that all charges against Chiygoz and Umerov have been dropped.

"Their release became possible thanks to the support of those who are not indifferent to political prisoners, who are not indifferent to Crimean Tatars," Polozov said. He said the releases were the result of "huge judicial, diplomatic, and political work" by Dzhemilev, Erdogan, and others.

"Neither Akhtem Chiygoz nor Ilmi Umerov asked for clemency or amnesty," Polozov said. "They are heroes of the Crimean Tatar people -- Ukrainian political prisoners for whom moral principles and conscience are more important than their own liberty. They are not people one can force to go on bended knee and ask for mercy from the Russian state."

In a Facebook post, Poroshenko thanked Erdogan for his role in the release of Chiygoz and Umerov, which came within weeks after Erdogan met with Putin in Ankara in late September and with Poroshenko in Kyiv on October 9.

"I thank...Erdogan for his efforts to release our heroes as we agreed in New York and Kyiv," Poroshenko said.

At a joint news conference with Poroshenko during his visit to Kyiv, Erdogan stressed that Turkey considers Crimea part of Ukraine and will continue to pay close attention to the plight of the Crimean Tatars, a Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim minority whose members were largely opposed to the Russian takeover.

Russia seized Crimea in March 2014, sending in troops and staging a referendum denounced as illegal by dozens of countries.

Both Umerov and Chiygoz are deputy chairmen of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar self-governing body, which Russian authorities deemed extremist and outlawed in what rights groups and Western governments said was part of a persistent campaign of oppression targeting Crimean Tatars and other citizens who opposed Moscow's takeover.

Umerov, who suffers from diabetes and Parkinson's disease, was confined to a psychiatric hospital in August 2016, a decision condemned by Human Rights Watch as "an egregious violation of his rights."

The United States, the European Union, and others have condemned the trials of both men and called for their release.

A spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on October 25 said that while the men's release is "good news," Russia should also release other illegally detained Ukrainians, reverse its decision to ban the activities of the Mejlis, and respect the political rights of Crimean Tatars.

The spokesperson said the EU "appreciates the efforts of all those who also worked for this outcome."

In March, the European Parliament called on Russia to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens it said were in prison or other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists. Most of them remain in custody.

In his Facebook post, Poroshenko said he would seek the release of all Ukrainians held by Russia.

"This issue will remain as one of the urgent ones in my talks with the world's leaders," he said, vowing to continue what he called "the joint fight for liberation of all Ukrainian citizens and their return home."

With reporting by Merhat Sharipzhan and AFP