Strategic Review – Aug 30, 2024
Absurd charges of complicity in crimes are a cover for closing down free speech and information critical of Western regimes. It’s as simple and as tyrannical as that.
Telegram owner Pavel Durov could be held in France for years while an investigation is carried out. If found guilty, he then faces 10 years in jail. There are sinister echoes of the persecution of Julian Assange in this case.
Telegram founder and owner, Pavel Durov (39) was arrested on August 24 by French police officers as he stepped off his private jet that had landed in Le Bourget airport, north of Paris. He had flown from Azerbaijan.
After four days in custody, Durov was released on Wednesday on condition of paying a €5 million bond and not leaving France for the duration of a cybercrime investigation. Durov lives in Dubai where he has Emirati citizenship, in addition to Russian and French nationality.
The French authorities charge him with complicity in crimes ranging from administering a social platform that permits criminal organizations to conduct drug trafficking and distribution of child pornography. He is also charged with not cooperating with law enforcement to curb criminal networks. His defense counsel denies all charges and maintains that Telegram has abided by all European regulations governing digital media.
The whole affair smacks of drama and a draconian clampdown by the French authorities to intimidate free speech and independent media. The alleged crimes are designed to make the wider public repudiate Durov and his rights to due process.
Suspiciously, French President Emmanuel Macron has spoken out in public twice over the past week, claiming that he had no advance knowledge of Pavel’s arrest and that he had nothing to do with his arrest. Macron went on to proclaim France to be a country that champions free speech and an independent judiciary.
Macron’s rush to distance himself sounds like an alibi. According to French media reporting, Durov told arresting officers that he was traveling to meet with Macron for dinner. It does seem strange that the Telegram owner took the risk of flying to Paris even though he would have known French investigators were probing the social network platform for a pretext to pressure him.
Did Macron set the Russian-born entrepreneur up by personally assuring him that he would be free to travel? It seems that the arrest warrant was hurriedly concocted after the private jet entered French airspace. Again, it all smacks of an entrapment.
It has been reported that Macron and Durov met on previous occasions. The French leader has been lobbying the entrepreneur to move his Telegram base of operations to France from Dubai. The bestowing of a French passport in 2021 is believed to be part of the enticement. It is well known that Macron is trying to reinvent France as a hi-tech global hub.
The charges against Durov are not only draconian but also absurd. The notion of holding the owner of a social network platform as being responsible for or complicit in the content of the network is preposterous.
Why not arrest the owners of telephone companies based on the same logic? It’s ridiculous and indicates an ulterior motive.
Telegram was founded in 2013-2014 by Durov (and his older brother). He left Russia in 2014 because he refused to comply with Russian authorities on allowing access to the privacy of users. Over the years, Telegram has grown worldwide to become one of the major messaging apps with nearly one billion monthly users. It has gained a reputation for secure communications and fierce independence from governments.
Pavel told American journalist Tucker Carlson in an interview earlier this year that he has routinely been harassed by U.S. authorities to hand over the encryption keys of Telegram, which he has refused to do.
By contrast, Western-based competitor apps such as WhatsApp and Western-controlled internet companies are known to have relented to pressure from the U.S. and European authorities on allowing “backdoor access” to supposedly private communications between individuals and groups.
Having said that, however, the content of these Western apps is also tainted with crime networks and horrendously sordid material. Why shouldn’t Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk be arrested next on similar charges to those leveled at Pavel Durov?
The difference is that Telegram has refused to comply with Western state intelligence services as it previously did with Russian counterparts. A case can be made that the Telegram owner is a “free speech absolutist”.
Much more important than the marginal criminal use of Telegram (as all apps are prone to), is the preponderant use of the platform for disseminating independent news and analysis.
Telegram has gained an enviable reputation for its accurate information on the war in Ukraine. Numerous independent news channels have flourished on Telegram to bring reliable and critical information about the conflict. Unlike Western media and social network platforms that kowtow to Western governments and NATO propaganda, Telegram has enabled a much more informed view of the war that exposes the Western narratives as a sham. Defense of Ukrainian democracy? More like defense of a NeoNazi regime and defense of Western war economies.
The fact is Telegram has become a globally important independent media network that is not controlled by Western regimes. It is for this reason that it is in the cross-hairs for repression, not because of alleged criminal activity by its owner. The latter reason is a pathetic pretext.
At a time when the U.S.-led NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia has entered a disastrous phase of defeat, the Western elite must shut down all and every critical media.
It is no coincidence that following the outrageous persecution of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange (five years in solitary confinement in a British dungeon) for exposing U.S. and NATO war crimes, we now see a surge in cases of cracking down on free media. American commentator Scott Ritter who has been a valued critic of the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine, recently had his home raided by the FBI. Other independent journalists have been arrested or harassed in Britain, France, Germany and across Europe for their critical views on the war in Ukraine or the Western-supported Israeli genocide in Palestine. Western so-called democracies are increasingly using fascist jackboot attacks on independent journalism and freedom of thought.
The Western elites and their fascistic power cannot abide any criticism or dissent that is fatal to their charade of authority. Emmanuel Macron, with his pretensions of grandeur and brittle egotism, embodies the Western elite.
Pavel Durov is awaiting the outcome of a vague and nebulous cybercrime investigation that may take years to complete. After which he may be imprisoned for another 10 years and pay huge financial fines. France which claims to uphold the highest principles of free speech has just descended to hostage-taking of innocent people for the vile purpose of killing free speech and independence of thought.
If as Number One Durov is guilty of any crimes committed on his platform, then as Number One Biden is guilty of all crimes committed in America.
Politicians have started eating their own. It won’t end well for them. They used to suck up to these people and in the case of Bill Gates they’ve killed millions for him for their paychecks. If I was Durov I’d offer $1million cash to any whistleblower who has proven sordid knowledge about Macron, then I’d release it.
The CEO of Gab, Andrew Torba, stated three days ago that Pavel Durov had been arrested because a Telegram hacker group, DDoSecret (now banned) had posted confidential Israeli government documents, discussing the founding of new non-profit organizations in the USA, in order to bypass the US Foreign Agents Registration Act, with the express purpose of favourably swaying the Presidential Election to its militaristic purposes.
Andrew Torba was advised by his lawyers not to travel to Europe because he’s wanted by the German Government for the non-payment of huge fines for allowing free speech on his platform. I too think it’s likely that Durov was duped by Macron.
I suppose if the authorities/goons search everything Pavel has they will probably find what they are looking for.
What they are looking for is the front door key and the back door key to Telegram. But if they can get into your phone they probably don’t need any keys to get into Telegram.
I suppose here’s your proof, only Jews are to own big tech.
What they don’t tell you is that Pavel Durov is a Yid.
Expose them and they try trick you any way they can .. this gerontosexual, in their pantheon, just keeps on exposing himself ..
Crowley on August 31, 2024 at 1:31 pm
‘What they don’t tell you is that Pavel Durov is a Yid.’
How many more are still under your bed, nut job?
Sophie = Commie
@ CROWLEY
we know there are plenty jews in high positions
but you dont need to get paranoid seeing every where
jews NICO X.
“How many more are still under your bed, nut job?”
An odd comment given the nature of this site.
I’ve not been able to find anything to corroborate the claim that Durov is a yid, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was.
Considering that Telegram does not encrypt end-to end by default and does not at all for groups, what is the likely outcome of this latest development?
I’d suggest that like Musk and X, what we are seeing is the charade of opposition to the deep state with the intent in this case of putting dissenters at their ease to speak freely on the platform. At their peril.
Crawley…..I never knew he supports Tottingham.
Attach a goatee on Durov & you have Leon Trotsky looking at you. Its all a skit to convince people that all these social media sites aren’t actually controlled by the same global Jew cabal. All these major social media sites : X, telegram, instagram, whatsapp, tiktok etc are all owned/managed by Yids.