A subset of society that's marginalized at best and killed at the worst doesn't care about who can read and influence their communication? That seems highly shortsighted to me.
That we know of. Given that the company behind Telegram has been involved in various sketchy situations I wouldn't bet my wellbeing on a service that might or might not share information with a corrupt government..
Share informarion with Putin? No, very unlikely. Ban opposition channels during elections? Confirmed yes.
Apple banned opposition's apps durung elections too. And Google.