I am not really a conspiracy person. I am saying that because this will sound conspiratorial and I am aware of that. I certainly think I am looking at things fr

I am not really a conspiracy person. I am saying that because this will sound conspiratorial and I am aware of that. I certainly think I am looking at things from a probabilistic and alignment perspective. Is he a russian agent? Probably not. But, he's not dead or in prison, I'd say that counts against him. He's complied with fighting "extremeism" in Russia. If Russia did want a view into international communications they would have to publicly distance themself from him. I'm not saying it is the case, but I think the chance is pretty far from 0. Certainly everyone benefits from the appearance that he and Russia do not get along. The chance his co workers are russian is higher, and therefore the chance that Russia has leverage (money/property/family/blackmail etc) directly over at least one employee seems pretty non trivial. I don't see any good reason to believe Russia or himself are distant on purely the grounds that both of them say so. Is freedom/what's morally right a guiding light? Well, it's run out of Dubai, the middle east isn't exactly a shining star of liberal ideals. Not everything is encrypted automatically. Are they consistent? Company is supposed to be a non profit entity but isn't structured that way. Are they aligned with privacy? Their revenue model is ads, a revenue model with deep precedence for violations of privacy. I see no reason that he wouldn't take a zuckerbergian approach. I don't find telegram to be any more trustable than Facebook. If I were using a platform for political speech, something I could be blackmailed for, or anything else that would get a state actor interested in me both seem like equally bad choices.