The Kremlin is trying to calm fears that the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France could upend the messaging platform, which is extremely popular in Russia and plays a key role in coordinating the war effort in Ukraine.
Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that calls for users to delete their sensitive messages on the app, including from the editor of Russia’s state-run RT news, were “utterly stupid.”
Peskov added that though the allegations against Durov, who was born in Russia but also has citizenship in France and the United Arab Emirates, were “serious,” French authorities would have to put forward “equally serious” evidence to back them up.
“Otherwise, there will be a direct attempt to restrict freedom of communication. And we can even say direct intimidation of the head of a large company. Which means there will be politics involved, something that Mr. Macron denied yesterday,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin’s move to assuage concerns over the future safety of Telegram underscores how important the app has become to Russia’s military.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said the decision to bring charges against Durov was “in no way political,” a rare move as French leaders often avoid discussing criminal cases to avoid any suggestion of politics influencing judicial affairs.
The Paris prosecutor’s office on Monday announced a litany of charges against Durov, including allegations that his platform was complicit in aiding money launderers, drug traffickers and people spreading child pornography. Prosecutors also accused Durov of refusing to comply with French authorities’ demand for help intercepting potentially illicit communications.
At a news conference in Moscow following talks with his Yemeni counterpart on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov alleged, without proof, that “Durov was clearly taken away on someone’s advice and is being threatened with terrible punishment, apparently hoping to somehow gain access to encryption codes.”
With around 950 million users, Telegram is one of the world’s most popular messaging apps. Its strong end-to-end encryption, limited content moderation and functionality — it allows users to share larger files, longer videos and higher-quality photos than many of its competitors — has made it extremely popular in both countries where freedom of speech is curtailed and in war zones, including in Ukraine, where it has become a vital tool for Ukrainian officials to share military updates and warnings about air raids.
“It is very convenient, it is very secure,” Lavrov said.
Those same features have also made Telegram a key communication tool for the Russian military and pro-Kremlin bloggers. One popular pro-Russian war blogger with more than 780,000 followers reshared a post saying that France’s decision to arrest Durov meant that “in essence, the head of communications for the Russian Armed Forces was detained.”
Another less-followed military blogger posted a picture with the words “for Pavel” on a missile presumably bound for Ukraine, which on Monday was hit by the largest aerial attack since the war began.
The blogger, Aleksei Sukonkin, said that Telegram is “the basis of military communications,” even if Russian government officials publicly dispute the claim.
“Telegram is a powerful, alternative to the official, and of course, more efficient information resource; telegram is also the main civilian messenger in Russia, practically uncontrolled by Western intelligence agencies, as well as a powerful advertising resource and a platform for personal blogs,” Sukonkin said. “All this is under threat.”
Telegram’s popularity with pro-Russian military bloggers and the Kremlin’s active support for Durov is somewhat surprising considering the tech entrepreneur refused to supply Moscow with data from users of his previous enterprise, a Facebook-like social media network called Vkontakte (VK).
Durov later resigned as VK’s CEO and sold his shares for millions of dollars. Both he and Telegram are now based in Dubai.
CNN’s Clare Duffy contributed to this report.
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