‘A gift to Vladimir Putin’

Public figures in Russia and beyond react to Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s arrest

On Saturday evening, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris immediately after his private jet landed at Le Bourget airport. According to French media reports, Durov is set to be charged with an array of offenses, including promotion of terrorism, fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, and organized crime, for Telegram’s lack of content moderation. Meduza has compiled initial reactions to Durov’s arrest from public figures in Russia and around the world.

Dmitry Medvedev

Deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council

Once, a long time ago, I asked Durov why he wouldn’t cooperate with [Russian] law enforcement to solve serious crimes. “This is my principled position,” he said. “In that case, you’ll face serious problems in any country,” I told him.

He believed his biggest problems were in Russia, so he left and went to other countries to get citizenship or residency. He wanted to be a brilliant “citizen of the world” who could live perfectly well without his Motherland. Ubi bene ibi patria!

He was mistaken. For all of our now-common enemies, he’s Russian — which means he’s unpredictable and dangerous. (Note from Meduza: Emphasis in original.) He’s of different blood. Certainly not Musk or Zuckerberg (who, by the way, actively cooperates with the FBI). Durov needs to understand once and for all that you can’t choose your Fatherland, just as you can’t choose the times you live in.

Andrey Klishas

Chairman of the Federation Council’s Committee on Constitutional Legislation

The French fight for “free speech” and “European values” continues.

Vladislav Davankov

State Duma deputy chairman

Right now, we need to get him out. I’ve called on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to urge the French authorities to release Pavel Durov from custody. […] If the French authorities refuse to release Pavel Durov from custody, I suggest we make every effort to have him moved to the UAE or the Russian Federation. If he agrees, of course.

Russian Foreign Ministry

In response to reports of Durov’s arrest, the Russian Embassy in France immediately took the necessary steps to clarify the situation regarding the Russian citizen, despite not receiving any requests from the businessman’s representatives.

Ruslan Leviev

Founder of the independent Russian investigative group Conflict Intelligence Team

Pavel’s arrest has united everyone: Russian officials, Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk, and our opposition figures. For what it’s worth, I also believe he shouldn’t be in prison. If he refuses to moderate content and remove various terrorism- and drug-related content, then apply economic pressure.

Christo Grozev

Investigative journalist

His refusal to cooperate with the FSB for the sake of free speech is, unfortunately, completely canceled out by his refusal to cooperate with anybody to stop Telegram from being used for all manner of horrible things. This was his choice. Could he have done one without doing the other?

Maria Zakharova

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman

I remember how in 2018, a group of 26 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, Committee for the Protection of Journalists, and others condemned a Russian court’s decision to block Telegram. […] And this entire time, Durov remained free, continuing to develop Telegram. I’m posting a screenshot of all of the Western agencies that spoke out, including by signing a collective appeal. What do you think, will they appeal to Paris and demand Durov’s release this time, or will they stay silent?

Tatyana Moskalkova

Russian human rights commissioner

It’s obvious that Pavel Durov’s arrest is an attempt to shut down Telegram — an Internet platform where one can learn the truth about what’s happening in the world. This is concerning among everyone who supports freedom of speech and the building of a multi-polar world.

Dmitry Gudkov

Russian opposition politician

There are a lot of complaints one could make about Durov and the content of his work, and especially the provocative form it takes, but I personally don’t believe that he actually collaborates seriously with the FSB. Otherwise, I would long have been able to purchase personal messages between myself and my colleagues from the Russian opposition that have been leaked on the dark web, like how the [Navalny-founded] Anti-Corruption Foundation brought the billing information and flight data of Navalny’s poisoners. Otherwise, all of the incidents we know about are linked to people’s arrests and the hacking of their phones, in which law enforcement officers gained physical access to devices.

Ivan Zhdanov

Current head of Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation

Regarding Durov. The charges of drug trafficking, pedophilia, and fraud look weak. This indicates that his arrest really is linked to his refusal to cooperate with the authorities. These allegations appear unconvincing and poorly thought-out.

If he knew that there was a case against him in France, and he still chose to go there, it could mean he’d made a deal with the authorities. It’s likely they won’t even [formally] arrest him, and the charges could later be dropped entirely. For example, in November 2017, oligarch Suleyman Kerimov was detained in Nice, and in June 2018, all of his charges were dropped.

Interestingly, the people squealing the loudest in Durov’s defense are Russian propagandists.

Georgy Alburov

Investigator for Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation

Durov’s arrest, in addition to being unjust as hell (Durov obviously isn’t engaged in terrorism or weapons trafficking), is also a huge blow to freedom of speech. Just remember how Telegram fought back against being blocked in Russia, how he personally developed tools for bypassing blocks, and compare it to how YouTube, which is incomparably richer, has just rolled over and surrendered in recent months. Freedom for Pavel Durov.

Alexander Rodnyansky

Ukrainian producer, director, and screenwriter

For his entire life, Pavel Durov has insisted on the right to free speech. With no restrictions. He almost went to prison for this in Russia, and now he finds himself in prison in France. Are the authorities’ claims against Durov valid? Yes, probably. But should he go to prison? That’s a matter of debate. Any government has numerous tools to defend their positions — fines, blocks, and so on. Durov’s arrest is a gift to Vladimir Putin, who will inevitably say something like “Where is your vaunted freedom of speech in the West?”

Alexey Pivovarov

Russian opposition politician

A Russian businessman, no matter what passport he gets, no matter how well he learns English or what jurisdictions he’s lived in, has practically no chance of ever convincing the outside world that he’s not a Russian businessman. In this sense, Durov’s case looks very similar to the case of Mikhail Fridman, who was also recently denied the lifting of sanctions against him because of his support of the Russian authorities, though Fridman has repeatedly proven through numerous arguments that this isn’t the case.

Dmitry Zair-Bek

Human rights lawyer, head of the human rights organization Department One

The arrest of Pavel Durov is a blow to the freedoms of people around the world. I’m confident that the alleged charge against him, “insufficient content moderation” (if this is really the case, as there hasn’t been an official announcement), is a secondary issue. Based on the information available so far, we can infer that Durov is essentially being targeted for his efforts to protect users’ privacy and, of course, for his refusal to cooperate with intelligence agencies. It’s for these same reasons that Durov and his team’s creation was blocked in Russia, Iran, China, and other countries. If the information about the French authorities’ claims against Durov is confirmed, we’ll safely be able to say that the European heavyweight state is declaring war not only on Telegram and its team but also freedom of speech and secrecy of correspondence as a whole, putting it on par with the unfree countries listed above.

I should note that Durov’s arrest should not be seen as a “seal of quality” for Telegram’s security, especially for Russian users. End-to-end encryption is only available in secret chats, and Telegram’s source code is only partially open — outside of its project team, nobody knows what happens on its servers. Nevertheless, Telegram is well-suited for everyday messaging: it’s user-friendly, fast, and has excellent functionality, being one of the few remaining platforms in Russia that haven’t come under Roskomnadzor’s banhammer, where you can still read independent media. But for confidential communication, we at Department One strongly recommend that people use alternatives to Telegram, such as Signal, Session, SimpleX Chat, Briar, and the Matrix-based messenger Element. […]

We await the formal charges and remand proceedings. I wouldn’t rule out surprises: France’s largest TV network TF1, citing a source close to the investigation, reports that Durov allegedly knew about his legal issues in France but went there anyway — and so far, nobody knows why.

Margarita Simonyan

Russian propagandist

Pavel Durov left Russia to avoid cooperating with intelligence agencies. He even became Paul du Rov [in his French passport, allegedly]. He did partially cooperate with Western intelligence agencies — at the very least, he followed strict orders to block RT in countries where we’re under sanctions. But it didn’t help. As we’ve now seen.

Mikhail Svetov

Russian libertarian politician

[…] We actually thought that Putin was a was a third-rate dictator who refused to let Russia join the family of free nations. Unfortunately, we couldn’t have been more wrong; it turns out that Putin was a pioneer. He set an example for the rest of the Western political class with his censorship, destruction of privacy, and surveillance. It turns out that the West was simply trailing behind.

Now I find myself in Latin America, observing the same kind of suppression of the people under [President Luiz Inacio] Lula [da Silva] in Brazil. I read about people being arrested for tweets in the UK and watch the arrest of Pavel Durov in France. Even Putin didn’t dare to do such things in his time.

These aren’t isolated issues. The political class is waging a global war against the people. Pavel wasn’t the only person attacked in France last night; our privacy and freedom of speech came under attack too. And, of course, they won’t stop with Pavel. Just as they didn’t stop with Julian Assange, Kim Dotcom, and Aaron Swartz. Because they’re not just targeting Telegram. The entire infrastructure of freedom is at risk.

Elon Musk

Tucker Carlson

American political commentator

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr

Former independent candidate for the U.S. president

Pekka Kallioniemi

Social media and disinformation expert

Edward Snowden

Former U.S. government contractor who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013 and now lives in Moscow

The Open Network (TON)

Blockchain project developed by Pavel Durov’s brother and associated with Telegram

Internet Protection Society

Anti-censorship NGO