The FSB uses the deletion of instant message correspondence as a basis for preventing foreigners from entering Russia.

The FSB uses the deletion of instant message correspondence as a basis for preventing foreigners from entering Russia.

The FSB checks whether foreigners have deleted correspondence in instant messages, and uses this as one of the reasons for refusing entry to Russia. The publication "Caution, News" writes about this, after studying nine court decisions on claims by citizens of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan who were not allowed to pass through Moscow airports.

In the courts, FSB representatives said that foreigners were sent for a "screening check", which included a survey and examination of their mobile phones. According to the intelligence service, travelers handed over their phones for verification "voluntarily".

The FSB also classified the prosecutors in these cases as "followers of the ideology of radical Islam," citing a history of YouTube views and subscriptions to preachers' channels banned in Russia.

One of the decisions states that inspectors found "signs of hiding correspondence by deleting it" on WhatsApp and Telegram. In another case, the FSB noted, among other things, that the foreigner "uses a push-button telephone for communication."

As the publication notes, a wave of this type of checks at Moscow airports began in the spring of 2024 after attack in Karchum. Later, Russian citizens who returned to Israel began to report a wave of investigations at the border.