Source: AFP
The arrest of rogue businessman Pavel Durov has drawn global attention to the importance of Telegram’s messaging app for Russian troops and propagandists as Moscow’s war against Ukraine enters its third year.
Since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in 2022, Telegram, which has over 900 million active users, has emerged as a critical platform used by pro-war bloggers to justify Moscow’s invasion and spread disinformation in Ukraine and the West.
It is also used as a tool by Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelensky posts his daily nightly address on Telegram — though for Kiev the app appears to lack the same military significance.
Observers say that in the absence of a modern battlefield management system, Russian troops have also grown to rely on Telegram in their day-to-day operations, using the encrypted app for everything from transferring information to course-correcting artillery strikes and guiding missiles. Iskander systems.
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The arrest of the Russian-born leader of Telegram in France has caused shockwaves among Russian authorities and war-mongers who fear the popular app will be hacked if Durov hands over encryption keys to Western intelligence.
“They are terrified,” said Ivan Filippov, who studies Moscow’s propaganda, referring to prominent pro-war bloggers with tens of thousands of followers.
If Western intelligence gets into a backdoor in Telegram “it would be an absolute disaster” for Russia, Filippov told AFP, summarizing their thinking.
“This is management on the ground,” added Filippov, who runs a widely followed Telegram channel.
A self-described libertarian, Durov has championed Internet privacy. Moscow tried to block Telegram in 2018, but abandoned those efforts two years later.
Anti-war blogger Andrei Medvedev said Telegram emerged as the “main messenger” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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“This is an alternative to classified military communications,” Medvedev said.
Alexei Rogozin, head of the Center for the Development of Transport Technologies, said many joked that Durov’s arrest was tantamount to “arresting the communications chief of the Russian armed forces — that’s how the battlefield management of troops depends on Telegram today.”
“Information transfer, artillery course correction, video streaming from helicopters and many other things are indeed often done with the help of Telegram,” said Rogozin, the son of the controversial former head of the Russian space agency, Dmitry Rogozin.
“Stuck in the Past”
Mykhailo Samus, director of the New Geopolitics Research Network, a Kiev-based think tank, said that while Russia has command and control systems, “they are not effective on the battlefield.”
“The Russian military is stuck in the past,” Samus told AFP.
Samus pointed out that the Ukrainian military has successfully relied on Delta, a battlefield management system developed by Ukrainians in cooperation with NATO. Delta has won high praise from the Western military bloc, which called the system “groundbreaking”.
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Source: AFP
While military observers do not expect Durov’s arrest to have an immediate impact on Russia’s war in Ukraine, it may spur the development of alternative encrypted communications systems in Russia.
Medvedev said it was now “vital” for the Russian military to create a proper military messenger, as “it is difficult to predict how long Telegram will remain as we know it” or “if it will remain at all.”
“A tool of Putin’s war”
France issued an arrest warrant for Durov as part of a preliminary investigation into alleged offenses including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime and promoting terrorism.
The Kremlin warned Paris on Tuesday not to try to intimidate Durov.
“The charges are very serious indeed, they do not require any less serious evidence,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The group and supporters of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny also actively use Telegram, and Durov’s detention has divided the anti-Kremlin opposition.
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Many critics of the Kremlin called France’s actions an attack on free speech, while others said Telegram needed to be made more accountable.
Source: AFP
Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev, who investigated Russian intelligence and was close to Navalny, said Russia’s FSB internal security service and the GRU military intelligence service used Telegram to recruit saboteurs and plan “terrorist acts”.
“I believe that France has no right to treat him differently than anyone who runs a market that sells drugs and child pornography and refuses to remove such services,” Grosev told AFP, referring to Durov.
“And that has nothing to do with freedom of expression or protecting users’ rights,” Groszeff added.
The Free Russia Forum, co-founded by Kremlin critic and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, said Durov — “willingly or not” — allowed Telegram to become a “weapon of war.”
“No matter how the French Durov saga ends, we hope that Telegram will cease to be a tool of Putin’s war.”
Source: AFP
