The arrest of Pavel Durov in France could be a problem for Russia: its application, Telegram, is one of the main communication channels for the troops in Ukraine.
Telegram is very popular among Russian speakers and plays a crucial role in the war that began in February 2024, to the point that, according to a analysis of the Institute for the Study of Waris “the main alternative to official communications for Russian military personnel in Ukraine.”
Telegram’s role in the war
As ‘Euronews’ explains Christine Dugoin-Clémentan expert researcher on the subject at the Sorbonne Business School in Paris, the platform plays a very important role in the coordination of military actions at different levels, the storage of videos and the exchange of large files.
According to the Institute for the Study of Warthe platform has in many cases replaced the army’s slow and ineffective official communication channels. “Russian forces have coped with the lack of adequate communications by using their personal devices to organize frontline logistics and combat operations.”
The Center for Military Studies writes what the Kremlin has tried to avoid this drift punishing the use of private communication channels, but without offering an adequate alternative.
In addition to its importance on the battlefield, Telegram is also used to spread the official Russian narrative about the war in Ukrainewith many channels linked more or less directly to the Kremlin or the Russian Department of Defense. “We have observed that some fake channels directly linked to the Kremlin have been created,” he says. Christine Dugoin-Clément.
The Moscow Government, according to experts, has discovered the best way to exploit Telegram after failing in its attempt to put the platform under its full control in 2018. The result is a kind of “cooperation” that has allowed Pavel Durov maintain its operational channel with apparent independence from national authorities, and allow the Kremlin to direct its activities for its own benefit.
On the one hand, it explains Dugoin-Clémentincreasingly restrictive laws were adopted. “Channel owners with more than 10,000 followers must provide information to Roskomnadzorthe organization in charge of controlling all media and social networks.”
The same law prescribes that every channel followed by more than 500,000 users must provide all information about its users at the request of Roskomnadzoror or intelligence services. So there is no control, but let’s say a kind of cooperation with the channel.”
A diplomatic case
Con its CEO in jail In a European country, Telegram could now be considered unreliable by the Russian armed forces and, in the worst case, even be completely blocked in the countryreports the Institute for the Study of War.
Although no immediate correlation has been detected between the Durov arrest and the functioning of the platform in the short term, the same uncertainty about the fate of the service could prompt its users to abandon it. This would “likely have an impact on frontline operations,” according to the think tank.
However, it seems unlikely that French authorities will be able to access military information contained in encrypted Telegram chats. “They could try, but it would be illegal, because at European level there is no regulation for reading private messages,” he explains to Euronews. Axel Legayprofessor at the Polytechnic School of Leuven (Belgium). The secret services could try it.
Certainly, Durov’s arrest has already become a diplomatic case. The Russian embassy in Paris has accused the French of refusing to cooperatewhile the Kremlin said it was awaiting official communications on the charges against Durov and denied a meeting between the founder of Telegram and Vladimir Putinin Azerbaijanspeculated by some media.
Meanwhile, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, assures that the arrest “is not a political decision”but an initiative totally independent of French justice.
