The Pavel Durov saga is a present that can carry on giving for a very long time to come back. That is what sizzling info warfare is all about. So let’s try to attach a number of free ends.
A high-level Russian analyst makes the case that Durov’s arrest is related with “anti-French protests in its former colonies, withdrawal from its conventional ‘sphere of affect’ the place Telegram infrastructure was used to push anti-colonial and anti-Macronist narratives”.
Add to it an “try and affect narratives on Ukraine each in Russian and the worldwide media discipline, which is very depending on Telegram infrastructure.”
Paris is certainly determined to make itself related in relation to psy ops and influencing/particular warfare in Ukraine.
Nonetheless, because the analyst notes, the French don’t have the tech means to perform it. So this may increasingly have led to Macron deciding to “train a private strain marketing campaign in opposition to Durov himself. French authorities should be relatively determined in making an attempt to maintain their heads within the recreation of worldwide politics. And Telegram at the moment is (his italics) world politics.”
Paris was simply ready for an enormous break. When the pilot of Durov’s Embraer non-public jet submitted his flight plan, there was no warrant for his arrest in France. Solely when the jet was on its technique to Le Bourget, Paris filed the warrant in haste. Durov was clueless all alongside.
In a nutshell: Paris acquired a fateful heads up he was flying into France – might have been by way of Durov’s Dubai-based, post-obsessive, social climbing girlfriend – and laid out the lure in a flash.
An Eminence in Jail
There’s a delusion that the FSB previously requested Durov for Telegram’s encryption keys. False. The FSB needed Telegram to offer prime entry on investigations of great crimes, on a case-by-case foundation. That’s an infinite distinction in comparison with what the US Authorities does with Meta or Twitter/X by way of their completely open backdoors.
Durov although acquired drunk on NATOstan’s “freedom and democracy” propaganda, rebuffed Russia, and left.
And that brings us to President Putin.
Putin had higher issues to do than to fulfill Durov in Baku, and the Kremlin has gone on the document to disclaim the assembly. Durov was doing a tour of Central Asia and the Caucasus, they occurred to cross their paths in Azerbaijan.
There’s one factor that Putin by no means tolerates: betrayal of Russia. And that applies to the letter to Durov.
When Durov went to the US, the People, predictably, demanded Telegram’s backdoors to surveil everyone. So he arrange store in Dubai and later utilized for French citizenship.
Durov grew to become a French citizen solely 3 years in the past – considerably, earlier than the launch of the SMO – by way of a particular “eminent foreigner” program arrange by the Ministry of International Affairs. Only a few are eligible; solely a “French-speaking foreigner who contributes via their eminent motion to the affect of France and the prosperity of its worldwide financial relations”.
Effectively, no “eminent motion” was sufficient to maintain him away from a French slammer.
Easy methods to Get These Keys
The European Fee (EC) in Brussels might be summarily described as a infamous bunch of EUrocrat cowards and/or psychopaths cheerfully praising “our values”.
Predictably, the EC refuses to touch upon Durov’s arrest, saying it’s a “nationwide investigation”.
An “investigation” which occurs to have been “inspired” by the US Deep State, carried out since July 8 by vassal Macronist police, to the advantage of NATO and… the European Fee itself.
The fees in opposition to Durov revealed by France’s Prosecutor of the Republic needs to be destroyed in court docket by any crack authorized crew. Basically, the claims are that Durov himself is chargeable for these abusing Telegram. He’s “complicit” of each misdeed underneath the solar – from organized fraud to drug-trafficking – all the best way to a hazy accusation of offering encrypted companies with no “licensed declaration”.
The accusations about Telegram’s lack of moderation are false. For example, Telegram actively censors correspondence contained in the EU; EU residents can not entry numerous chats and channels. Furthermore, Telegram is just not involved by the latest, hardcore neo-Orwellian EU legislation in opposition to mega social networks, as a result of it harbors lower than 45 million European customers a day.
Now let’s give attention to motive.
The present liberal-totalitarian Euro-gulag, or EuroLag, is a large energy bloc that doesn’t have entry to Telegram’s content material.
Telegram maintains its personal servers world wide, and routing goes by way of Amazon, Cloudfare and Google. Because the begin of Telegram, US intel/surveillance has the means to simply block it – in the event that they really feel prefer it.
The EU is a unique ball recreation. So right here we’ve got Brussels, by way of Paris, making an attempt to amass no less than some management over Telegram – and social networks usually. An important reminder – which could possibly be billed underneath the Pathetic Tech division: Europe has no (italics mine) social networks.
Therefore the continuous threats in opposition to Twitter/X and the neo-Orwellian Digital Companies Act over the accountability of platforms when it comes to content material, which applies to all of them, and never solely Telegram.
The EU and France desperately need what the hegemonic energy already has, in droves: entry to all the things, proper right here, proper now, with no authorized documentation in any respect.
The important thing query now’s: will they get it by making use of strain over Pavel Durov? There’s no proof he has Telegram’s encryption keys. What in the event that they acquired the incorrect man?
Nikolai Durov, Pavels’ ultra-discreet brother, is the prime genius architect of Telegram: math grasp, two PhDs, gold medals within the Worldwide Mathematical Olympiad. The French would relatively reduce a deal – thus the prolonged interrogation: however that may suggest breaking Pavel so he would affect Nikolai at hand over these fabled keys.
Why Now? And Who Earnings?
Predictably, Durov’s interrogation goes on with zero transparence. France is an excruciatingly secretive society, vulnerable to absolute silence on critical issues, nerve-wracking gradual, punctuated by uncommon formal declarations. It’s all about process – and the forms is stultifying.
But French forms could have given a valuable trace on what actually bothers them. They merely can not settle for that anybody makes use of – or supplies – the technique of “obfuscation” when it comes to monetary transactions, bypassing censorship and bypassing surveillance.
So this may increasingly go means past the obsession to get some or all of Telegram’s encryption keys. The French bureaucratic equipment desires to go no holds barred to suppress any chance of any bypassing – whereas retaining the ability to punish anybody.
If the saga goes on and on, resulting in a trial and finally a 20-year jail sentence, meaning Durov wouldn’t be damaged dealing with the bureaucratic equipment, and he’ll at all times stay “an confederate”.
Hardly seemingly. Bye bye to limitless glitz and glamour, in change for a each day stale baguette in a French gaol?
Two extra inevitable questions. Why now? As a result of the EU wants it, badly. And who earnings? The main candidates are the “esprit de corps” of ultra-regimented French forms and their Franco-European oligarch connections. Envy can be within the playing cards. Durov is Russian, an outsider, and Telegram – with a billion customers worldwide – is a convincing success.
Something can occur additional on down the street – together with the blocking of Telegram in France and the EU. The World Majority couldn’t care much less. In the meantime, multitudes marvel at how a narcissist tech globalist could possibly be so naïve to imagine that liberal totalitarianism would ever shield his freedom.
