Apple approves iOS update of 'Telegram' app

"Apple has been preventing 'Telegram' from updating its iOS apps globally ever since the Russian authorities ordered Apple to remove 'Telegram' from the app store," Durav wrote on Friday. 

"While Russia makes up only 7 per cent of Telegram's userbase, Apple is restricting updates for all Telegram users around the world since mid-April."

The Russian government banned Telegram in April because the messaging app company, in an ongoing court trial in Russia refused to hand over encryption keys that would allow the country's "Federal Security Service (FSB)", access to sensitive user data.

Along with Amazon and Google Cloud platforms, the Russian government requested Apple also to pull "Telegram" off their respective app stores to which the Cupertino, California-headquarted did not succumb, The Verge reported.

"Thank you @Apple and @tim_cook for letting us deliver the latest version of @telegram to millions of users, despite the recent setbacks," Durov tweeted on Saturday.

Launched in 2013, "Telegram" was invented by Durov, who frequently clashed with the security services over his social network "VKontakte" and left Russia in 2014.

"By attempting to block the 'Telegram' messaging app, the Russian authorities are launching the latest in a series of attacks on online freedom of expression in the country," Denis Krivosheev, the human rights group's deputy director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia had said in April.