Yes, in case like Facebook it would be easy to say that it provides information to the U.S. gov.

With Telegram, as you say, the Russian ban (somewhere around 2014) could have been designed to signal that Telegram is not run by the FSB.

This arrest, on the other hand, could have been intended signal that Telegram is not run by the CIA.

There have been a couple of house searches, extradition orders and YouTube bans all in the last two weeks for pro Russian commentators. I always wonder if these individuals are genuine or actually working for the U.S. gov.

Anyway, together with the latest crackdown of the EU on Musk all these events could be genuine and not staged.