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Written by Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has been formally indicted by a French court, accused of being an accomplice in several crimes allegedly committed by users of his messaging app. After paying a fine of five million euros, Durov was released from prison, but he is banned from leaving France and could be arrested again in the future.
Durov was arrested in Paris after arriving at the local airport from Azerbaijan. The charges against him could lead to a sentence of up to ten years in prison, but a series of diplomatic pressures appear to be hampering the authoritarian plans of French officials. Durov, despite being Russian by birth, holds several passports and is a citizen of different countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Durov lived in Dubai for many years and developed deep economic and strategic ties with the UAE government. For this reason, the pressure from the Arab country for France to release him was massive. The UAE threatened to end military and economic cooperation agreements, which certainly raised concerns in the French government. In practice, it can be said that the UAE used its international position as an important commercial and diplomatic hub to help Durov face the tyranny of the French authorities.
It must be said that there is no solid argument to condemn Durov. Social media creators cannot be held responsible for what other users do on their platforms. If Durov provided the French authorities the keys to access Telegram’s internal codes, he would not only be helping to punish the criminals who use the app, but also violating the private data of millions of innocent users – in addition to giving the French government access to data shared by state officials, businessmen and military personnel who use Telegram.
If France were truly committed to values such as freedom and democracy, Durov’s arrest would never have happened. However, contemporary France is anything but democratic. Paris is becoming a dictatorship under Emmanuel Macron, who has repeatedly refused to recognize the electoral defeat of his party coalition, taking authoritarian measures similar to those of some autocratic regimes around the world.
Durov himself is a French citizen. If France were a democracy, it would be concerned about guaranteeing the individual freedoms of its citizens. However, even Middle Eastern Islamic countries such as the UAE, which are often described as “autocratic” by the West, are more respectful of democratic values than France – as seen in the UAE’s efforts to have Durov released from prison.
The most interesting fact about Durov’s case, however, is that some Western media outlets are trying to describe him as a kind of Russian “agent.” There is a narrative that Telegram is a Russian tool of “hybrid warfare.” Western propagandists are trying to mislead the public into believing the fallacy that Durov refuses to share data with the French authorities in order to supposedly “protect the Russians.” However, the truth is quite different.
Despite being born in Russia, Durov has always been an opponent of the Russian government. Ideologically libertarian, Durov has always had a Westernized view of his country’s politics, seeing Moscow as an enemy of individual freedom. He left his homeland in search of greater freedom in the West—and is now being persecuted by France, the country where Durov sought citizenship in the hope of finding greater freedom than in Russia.
Durov is now learning in the worst possible way that the “freedom” advocated by the West is just rhetoric. In France, where he expected to be “free,” Durov is being persecuted simply for upholding his libertarian values and refusing to share sensitive data with state authorities. Durov has never faced such brutal persecution in his own country, which shows that the level of violation of individual freedoms in the West is higher than in Russia.
It is not yet known what Durov’s future will be. He is not “free” yet, since Paris has ordered him to remain on French territory. The local authorities are trying to intimidate him, using psychological terror to make him reveal the Telegram’s codes. Banned from leaving France, Durov’s only hope may be to seek asylum in the French-based diplomatic facilities of a country of which he has citizenship.
Only one thing is certain for Durov: he is not safe in France, the country where he once believed he would find freedom.
You can follow Lucas on X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.
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coming to the u.$.a. home of freak land of the $lave soon regardless of team red or team blue
stupid article. it was not france who decided to put him in jail, it was pentagon/cia and they didn’t bothere to nform stupid macron puppet in advance. i’ needn’t to be a rocket engineer to put one and one together and conclude that durov was jailed because somebody leaked f16 affair in ukraine, particularly that ukies scored own goal. and now they are rosting him to give them keys to find the telegram person who was pissing against the wind and leaked it.
but why does america have that kind of leverage over one of the most important economies in the eu??? on second thought… don’t answer that! i remember being in europe in the 90s and how resistant the western european nation(s) were to losing their sovereign currencies to the euro….
no you don’t know until you realize that it’s the authority fir rule of law that runs everything you will be deceived by intentionally misleading propagandas like the rest of their flock of useless eaters
telegram has been in weatern crosshairs for a while. all eastern based social media is. telegram has been a source of independent journalism for years. and its garnered popularity especially in the past few years. obviously the west has become neo-feudal and censorship and propaganda …
that is, the total control of information is vital in any dictatorship especially one that is engaged in military misadventures and is forever warring. this posture that only benefits bankers and the military industrial complex has completely canibalized the western economy and it’s reached its end
no that’s their propaganda aits just relocating power to a new source its the great reset back to pre french revolution back to the vatican ruling the civilised world from the king of kings its. monarchist restoration revolution disguised as social awakening.
and has had a backdoor to it through nsa for some time… which leads one to reflect on the cutout(s) that are ‘edward snowden’ and ‘julian assange’ that are being used to divine herd direction… ever wonder why the both of them never endorsed the petition by ae911truth and actually spoke ill of it?….
everything’s censored you only are allowed to hear what they allow you don’t know them or what they said.
that’s not true that’s their spiel i k ow 100% first hand that they aren’t what they seem. 100%
you are pro-billionaires, i like you!
then remember “love of money is the root of all evil”
they’re all run by catholics, the military top brass and the cia
dividing russia and france for the sovereign communist centralised eal rule of law
free free durov!
you don’t know him or her or whatever from a bar of soap you have no experience that proves telegram are fraudulent deceivers imo. you haven’t bothered to even read the accusations or look at any evidence youre being manipulated like a sheep. imo.
i don’t care about this traitor anymore he sold out to foreign interests
he or she or whatever gender is or was or will be if any gender at all, who knows, is i agree not whatever it seems.
we froggies have to close down free speech because those are our rules based democracy values and that’s just who we are. sacre bleu! free speech is a putin plot to steal our baguettes!
all of the theater about politicians having supporters is to disguise the fact that they have none, and have zero authority but quiescent fear from sheep who believe some other idiots actually voted for them. as they have been treated with lawlessness from their self-appointed rules, they will display more and more lawlessness towards them in return.
course “all the world’s a stage” its all jesuit theatre of operations imo. reflect back to 2013 and observe the rapid trance formation of america and the world since the historical resignation abdication of benedict and the ascendancy of the jesuits over the world.
the jesuits are just one of the occultist groups who all answer to the same authority. they may as well just be called freemasons with a catholic disguise.
macaronis raised catholic. like pelosi like almost all of them here on internet land, no land and sea. its taken vatican roughly 100 years since mussolini did the deal with italy king to restore vatican’s temporal powers removed by bonaparte.
on land and sea i typed they’ve removed the edit button using their insider operatives.
“alright, i’ve got you covered, see? you’re all through, washed up, there’s no escape for you. now look, you’ve pulled your last caper, see? we’ve got you this time, we’ve got you good, too. now, don’t try to pull any funny business, because it’s curtains for you, y’understand, curtains i tell you!!”
but it is legal to groom children into saying they want sex with an adult in france before puberty has even started. i spy bad things to come for france.
very observant yes macaroni was a 14 yo school boy and his partner was his teacher about what is it 36 years his senior?
dressed up as a woman too. why are bankers often so shameless? no shame, like the beds in the chabad walls. if only they had shame their punishments would be easier.
im afgan migrant. i entered germany on juny.last year. my name is hasan ebubekir. i have 6 children cocuki. why germany pays 400 euro for ukraine children but for afghan children pays less 300 euro only. thiz iz not good. our arab children must be 400 euro too. germany will pay me 3000 not 1500 euro. why germany pays 100 euro more for ukraina children . i will share this everywhere only protest will finish this problem
my name jawohl johann. i german tranny, us germans all have lgbt sex now, no more german babies. mr. shlomo shekelstein from israid bring a million muzzies germany replace all germans. all germans now lgbt or trannies. mr. shlomo also boss of globohomo media and schools. he turn all kleine kinder into trannies now. soon only trannies and muzzies in germany. we have to do what mr. shlomo say. we no auntie semitic.
i like south front, rt, sputnik and russian government because they are pro-billionaires!
if i was a billionaire being held hostage by a criminal government i’d spend a few millions paying to have those who persecuted me without a legitimate reason removed from their positions by whatever means necessary.
they’re thugs – no one will miss them and then the rest of us will be able to get on with our lives dealing with other sane people.
i didn’t need this pavel story to convince me that france and the eu are not free speech and behave like any dictatorship with extreme violence against democracy (which stands for majority rule and not a tiny group of weirdos like macron and his entourage). the way his government acted against peaceful demonstrators has shown that france is no different from the countries our governments criticize.