On 20 March 2018, the Supreme Court of Russia dismissed the
claim by a representative of the Telegram messaging service,
claiming to abolish the Order of the Federal Security Service of
Russia ("FSB") dated 19 July 2016 requiring messaging
services to provide decryption keys to FSB which may allow the
security authorities to read correspondence by Telegram's
users.
So far the Supreme Court has only published the operative part
of their decision, meaning that no reasons for the judgment are
available at the moment. However, the negative outcome for Telegram
was fairly obvious long before the decision.
Main arguments in the case
Argument 1: The order establishing the
procedure for providing decryption keys was adopted by FSB;
however, they were not entitled to do so. The order should have
been adopted by the Government of Russia based on Article 10.1 of
the Federal Law of Russia No. 149-FZ "On Information,
Information Technology and Protection of Information"
