MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. Telegram messaging service has been informed of the need to provide information to law enforcement agencies in compliance with law, Russia’s media watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement published on its website.

"Based on Article 15.4 of the Federal Law on Information, Information Technologies and Data Protection (restriction of information disseminators’ access to Internet), Roskomnadzor has sent a notification to Telegram Messenger Limited, informing about the need to fulfill the responsibilities imposed on information disseminators," the statement reads.

According to Roskomnadzor, a court ruling that entered into force on December 12, 2017, confirms that Telegram has failed to fulfill responsibilities prescribed by law. "The above mentioned responsibilities should be fulfilled within 15 days after the notification is received," the watchdog stressed.

Telegram issue

Earlier on Tuesday, a representative of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) told the Supreme Court that the FSB did not believe that the law on correspondence privacy could be applied to messaging services. The FSB cited the Russian Constitutional Court’s position.

The Supreme Court turned down a request filed by Telegram management for declaring void a FSB order establishing the rules for obtaining codes necessary for reading users’ messages.

In October 2017, a Moscow magistrates court ordered the London-based Telegram Messenger LLP to pay a fine of 800,000 rubles ($13,800) for refusing to meet the FSB’s demand on handing over information for decoding messages. The company later challenged the decision but a district court later upheld it.

Telegram is a popular messaging service launched by Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov.