The main draw of telegram is not that it is secure it’s that it’s basically unmoderated. As a Russian I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with government censorship (dissent being equated to extremism and treason, LGBT advocacy equated to pedophilia) and it leads me to be deeply distrustful of the concept in a way similar to first amendment fanatics in the US (the first amendment is one of the uniquely good things about america you can’t get in other “civilized” “western” countries). I suspect durov might have similar sentiments (though ofc I don’t condone all the bad shit posted in the network and would prefer if it was moderated).

Still, whatever its faults, Telegram is the last remaining open social network in Russia where you can write whatever you like to a large audience and the government won’t be able to remove it. They censored and blocked pretty much all the other ones.