Investigation by investigative journalism outlet IStories (EN version by OCCRP) shows that Telegram uses a single, FSB-linked company as their infrastructure provider globally.
Telegram’s MTProto protocol also requires a cleartext identifier to be prepended to all client-server messages.
Combined, these two choices by Telegram make it into a surveillance tool.
I am quoted in the IStories story. I also did packet captures, and I dive into the nitty-gritty technical details on my blog.
Packet captures and MTProto deobfuscation library I wrote linked therein so that others can retrace my steps and check my work.
That answers all my questions about you, like whether you’re able to provide an answer in good faith. It seems your issue is that I understood your clear subtext. I’m sure you’re not worried about a country with telecom and botnet rivals to the USA producing anything of consequence, why would you write about anything of consequence?