Russia’s spy chief ‘hopes’ Durov will reject French pressure
The West is highly unlikely to get any sensitive data on Russia from Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, who was arrested by the French authorities last week, according to Sergey Naryshkin, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).
Asked in an interview with TASS on Tuesday whether Moscow was concerned about Durov handing over any secrets to the West, the Russian spy chief rejected the notion. “I really hope that he will not allow this,” Naryshkin said.
The Telegram CEO was arrested at a Paris airport after arriving by private plane from Azerbaijan on Saturday. According to French prosecutors, Durov, who is a citizen of France, Russia, the UAE, and St. Kitts and Nevis, was taken into custody as part of a broader probe investigating child pornography, drug sales, fraud, and other criminal activities on the platform. Durov is also being investigated for allegedly refusing to cooperate with law enforcement looking into cyber and financial crimes.
Telegram has pushed back against the potential charges, saying it is “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.” Meanwhile, numerous opinion leaders around the world have interpreted the arrest as a crackdown on free speech, with speculation that the US was ultimately behind the detention.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that the arrest had been made “obviously on someone’s advice,” adding that the people behind the decision were hoping to get their hands on Telegram encryption codes. “The French actions have proven that Telegram is indeed a resilient and popular network,” he argued.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed as “utter stupidity” the idea that Telegram users would have to delete their message feeds on the platform following Durov’s arrest, adding that senior Russian government officials do not use the network for work purposes.
French President Emmanuel Macron has insisted that Durov’s arrest “is in no way a political decision,” noting that his country remains committed to the principle of free speech. However, Peskov suggested that the investigation could turn political after all.
Any charges against Durov “require… a serious evidence base,” he cautioned. “Otherwise, it will be a direct attempt to restrict the freedom of communication and, one might even say, to directly intimidate the head of a large company.”
