Will Russia bring Telegram under Putin's control after Pavel Durov's arrest? Here's what it could do next
Telegram, was detained in Paris. The analysts believe that the Kremlin may take advantage of the global uproar to target one of the few platforms that has escaped censorship.
According to George Barros of the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank, the 39-year-old Durov left the nation in 2014 after he allegedly refused to turn over the encryption keys, and the Kremlin has been attempting to obtain Telegram for years to expand its power to censor and control the content on the app.
Telegram is viewed as a liability by the Kremlin. It is the biggest platform in Russia that is not under the control of the Kremlin, as quoted in a report by The New York Post.
Barros surmised that the Kremlin would have leverage over the billionaire if Russian diplomats could persuade France to hand him over to Russian control. They might attempt to obtain the keys to Telegram, which Durov has been battling for years, if they manage to get him into their custody and imprison and threaten him.
According to Christine Dugoin-Clément, a researcher and specialist in Ukraine and Russia at the Sorbonne Business School in Paris, Telegram, which boasts over 900 million users globally, has emerged as a crucial tool for Moscow's military following the failure of attempts to outlaw the platform in 2018.
The app was the first choice for officials and soldiers to coordinate attacks after the invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. They share files and videos on it, as well as notes on military operations, mentioning that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner militia, who defied the Kremlin last year and perished when his private jet blew up in midair, was a frequent user of Telegram.
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