By SRH,
Musk is the next target. Make no mistake, Christians and conservatives are being closely scrutinized, or perhaps I should say, are in the line of fire. Russia is seeking explanations after the arrest of Pavel Durov, the billionaire co-founder and CEO of the messaging platform Telegram. He was taken into custody by French officials at Bourget airport near Paris on Saturday night after arriving on his private jet. The Russian embassy in Paris has called on the French government to clarify the situation, claiming that French authorities have not been forthcoming. Recent reports indicate that Durov is set to face a judge on Sunday evening. The embassy stated regarding the 39-year-old billionaire, “As soon as we learned of Durov’s arrest, we reached out to the French authorities for clarification on the reasons behind it and insisted they protect his rights and grant him consular access.”
He was born in Russia, thus he is a citizen of that country as well as dual citizens of France and the United Arab Emirates.
According to Russian diplomats, Paris has not responded. According to a statement, “the French side has been avoiding cooperation on this issue up to this point.” He has now been referred to as a “political prisoner” by Russian politicians.
On Sunday, Russian parliamentarian Maria Butina declared, “Pavel Durov is a political prisoner, a victim of the West’s witch-hunt.”
“The arrest of Pavel Durov means there is no freedom of speech – it means that freedom of speech in Europe is dead,” she said. “Now basically they have a hostage and they will try to blackmail Russia, they will try to blackmail all the users of Telegram and not only try to get control but also try to block the network here in Russia.”
Furthermore, the internet entrepreneur’s arrest “may be politically motivated and used to gain access to the personal information of Telegram users,” according to Vladislav Davankov, the deputy speaker of the Russian parliament.
Additionally, Durov is being targeted because he is Russian, according to Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy director of Russia’s Security Council. Medvedev claimed, “He miscalculated.” “For all our common enemies now, he is Russian – and therefore unpredictable and dangerous.” Medvedev said, “Durov should finally realize that one cannot chose one’s the fatherland.”
An intriguing perspective is that the Russian military, along with the general public, uses the app extensively, which is well-known for being extremely secure because to its end-to-end encryption.
The National Anti-Fraud Office (ONAF) arrested Durov on charges of facilitating a number of crimes, including fraud, drug trafficking, and terrorism. “On his platform, he allowed an incalculable number of offences and crimes to be committed, for which he did nothing to moderate or cooperate,” a source said to TF1 TV.
Kim Dotcom, the creator of Megaupload, described the detention as a “crackdown against free speech.”
Concerns about what this signifies for free expression and even who the next target of Western governments might be have been raised by several well-known personalities.
One little-known feature of this war is that the Ukrainian military largely communicates via Signal and the Russian military via Telegram.
