2024-08-28 14:06:30
Russian military bloggers are frightened by the idea of what will happen after the arrest of the billionaire and founder of the popular Telegram social network Pavel Durov. They lament the future of aggression in Ukraine, as the platform serves as a key means of communication for the invading army.
Russian military bloggers are frightened by the idea of what will happen after the arrest of the billionaire and founder of the popular Telegram social network Pavel Durov. | Video: Reuters
The 39-year-old founder of Telegram has French and Russian citizenship. After his arrest at a Paris airport, investigators said his messaging platform was being used for fraud, drug trafficking, money laundering and other crimes.
According to TV channel TF1, an arrest warrant should have been issued for the entrepreneur also in connection with insufficient provision of secure content on Telegram, which the entrepreneur founded more than ten years ago and which he now manages from the position of CEO.
Russian journalist Alexander Sladkov emphasized that the Russian military conducts half of its communications through Telegram and an alternative must be created immediately.
“This attack was expected. Now we urgently need to create a Russian military messaging platform. Wasn’t it possible to think of this before?! Russian punishment is carelessness. And this is a nightmare,” Sladkov wrote.
“Telegram is currently the basis of military communication. From now on, everything is in jeopardy. Isn’t this the biggest tragedy of this August?” wrote Russian military blogger Alexei Sukonkin.
The Russian Telegram channel Rybar, founded by Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former employee of the Russian Ministry of Defense, pointed out that Telegram has now become almost the main means of controlling troops in the Ukrainian war zone.
“It will be very sad and at the same time funny if the driver of changes in the approach to communication and management in the Russian armed forces will be the arrest of Pavel Durov. And not the purely military problems that have accumulated over two years, to which the relevant department for some reason prefers to turn a blind eye ,” the channel said.
Russian newspapers also focused on the future of Telegram. “If Telegram crashes, how will (our military) fight?”, “Telegram could become a tool of NATO”, read their headlines.
Russian politicians also started commenting on the situation. “Freedom of speech in Europe is dead. Elon Musk is free, Mark Zuckerberg is free. But Durov is in jail. Why? Because he is Russian. So he was tracked down as a person to be scapegoated for the West, as an evil Russian,” she claimed in report by the British agency Reuters, member of the State Duma, Maria Butinová.
She was sentenced to 15 months in prison in the US in 2018 for acting as a Russian spy. After the arrest, Durova stated that the head of Telegram was arrested in an attempt by the West to gain control of Telegram. “They basically have a hostage now and they’re going to try to blackmail Russia. They’re going to try to blackmail all Telegram users,” she said.
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