Paris
CNN
—
The Russian government is seeking to allay fears that the arrest in France of Telegram founder Pavel Durov could upend the messaging platform, which is hugely popular in Russia and plays a key role in coordinating war efforts in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that asking users to delete sensitive messages on the app, including those from an editor at Russia’s state-run RT news agency, was “completely stupid.”
Peskov added that the charges against Durov, who was born in Russia but also holds French and United Arab Emirates nationality, were “serious” but that French authorities needed to provide “equally serious” evidence to back them up.
“Otherwise there will be direct attempts to restrict freedom of communication, which could be seen as direct threats to the heads of major companies. This means that there is a political component, which Macron denied yesterday,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin’s move to allay concerns about Telegram’s future security underscores how important the app has become to the Russian military.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that the decision to prosecute Durov was “in no way political,” an unusual step because French leaders often avoid discussing criminal cases to avoid any suggestion that politics are influencing judicial matters.
Paris prosecutors announced a raft of charges against Durov on Monday, including allegations that his platform helped money launderers, drug traffickers and distributors of child pornography. They also accused Durov of failing to comply with requests from French authorities to help intercept potentially illegal communications.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking at a press conference in Moscow after meeting with his Yemeni counterpart on Tuesday, claimed without evidence that “Durov was apparently taken in on someone’s advice and threatened with terrible punishment in an attempt to somehow gain access to the codes.”
With approximately 950 million users, Telegram is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. Its strong end-to-end encryption, limited content moderation, and ability to share larger files, longer videos, and higher quality photos than many competing apps have made it extremely popular both in countries where freedom of speech is restricted and in war zones, where it has become a key tool for Ukrainian authorities to share military updates and air raid warnings.
“It’s very convenient and very safe,” Lavrov said.
The same features have also made Telegram a key communications tool for the Russian military and pro-Russian bloggers. One popular pro-Russia blogger with more than 780,000 followers reshared a post saying France’s decision to arrest Durov meant “the Russian military’s communications chief has essentially been detained.”
Another military blogger with a smaller following posted a photo of a missile apparently fired at Ukraine, which on Monday underwent its biggest air raid since the war began, with the words “To Pavel” written on it.
Blogger Alexei Skhonkin said Telegram was a “facilitiy of military communications,” despite Russian government officials publicly disputing the claim.
“Telegram is a powerful alternative to official messaging and, of course, a more efficient source of information. It is also Russia’s main civilian messenger, practically uncontrolled by Western intelligence services, a powerful advertising resource and a platform for personal blogs,” Skonkin said. “All of this is under threat.”
Telegram’s popularity among pro-Russian military bloggers and the Kremlin’s active backing of Durov are somewhat surprising given the tech entrepreneur’s refusal to hand over user data from VK, the Facebook-like social media network he previously ran, to Moscow.
Durov has since stepped down as CEO of VK and sold his shares for millions of dollars, and both Durov and Telegram are now based in Dubai.
CNN’s Claire Duffy contributed to this report.
