Telegram has blocked the “VChK-OGPU” channel, and its author has been detained by security forces in St Petersburg.

Last night, when following the channel’s link, a warning appeared stating that it was blocked due to doxxing and extortion.

On 29 October in St Petersburg, police detained the creator of the Telegram channel “Lisa Basilio,” Artyom Shalyakin, who was also one of the authors of “VChK-OGPU.” This was reported by BBC Russian and Rotonda.

“I know that Artyom was detained—as I understand it, FSB officers did this because of an article about [Roman] Plugyn, the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of St Petersburg, and notes about 'Rosavtodor'. All I know is that some officers took him away, and while he was being held, Durov took down our channel. What is happening with Artyom now I don’t know—he is not in contact with us or his friends,” said “VChK-OGPU” creator Aleksandr Shvarev.

According to Rotonda’s source, security forces focused on Shalyakin because of “some inaccurate posts—supposedly the people featured in them tried several times to get their side across to the author but were not heard.”

• In April, the “VChK-OGPU” channel, which then had over a million subscribers, was deleted. The authors blamed Telegram, while the app’s administrators claimed the channel was deleted by its owners, “possibly as a result of unauthorised access.”