The 39-year-old Franco-Russian is being prosecuted by the French courts, which accuse him of not taking action against the dissemination of criminal content on the messaging service.
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“The main thing is that what is happening does not turn into political persecution in France.” This was stated by the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, on Thursday, August 29, the day after the indictment of Telegram boss Pavel Durov. The 39-year-old Franco-Russian is being prosecuted by the French courts for his lack of action against the dissemination of criminal content on the platform.
The billionaire, arrested Saturday at Le Bourget airport, is being charged with “ccomplicity in the administration of an online platform to enable an illicit transaction, in organized gang”, “laundering of crimes or offences by an organized gang”, or even “refusal to communicate, at the request of the authorized authorities, the information or documents necessary for the carrying out and exploitation of interceptions authorized by law”. Placed under judicial supervision, he has the obligation to “to pay a deposit of 5 million euros, the obligation to report to the police station twice a week, and a ban on leaving French territory”, has specified the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Telegram, which has 900 million active users, has become the preferred platform for Russian pro-war bloggers to justify the operation and spread disinformation. Experts point out that in the absence of modern tools, Russian troops have also used encrypted messaging for battlefield operations, from transferring intelligence to correcting artillery strikes to guiding Iskander missiles. And Moscow now fears that Durov will give the French the key to decrypting the messaging.
