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Page 1Come home, boy!
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Page 2″Icarus, you’re flying pretty close to the sun!”
In Moscow, the powerful are suddenly discovering freedom. For days, the head of the social network Telegram, who is being held in France, has been the main topic of conversation in Russia. Pavel Durov, who has at least four passports – as far as is known – is being investigated for aiding and abetting drug trafficking, child abuse, money laundering and other crimes. After a temporary arrest, the French judiciary released Durov on bail, but he is not allowed to leave France for the time being. Russian politicians and propaganda broadcasters are now demanding that Paris let “our boy” leave the country and are mocking the fact that freedom in the West is apparently not very widespread.
The Paris investigation against the blog and messenger king Durov is targeting Russia’s most important communication channel alongside state television. Telegram has become an integral part of everyday life in Moscow, where not only smartphone junkies get up and go to bed with the messenger service. Years ago, the Kremlin tried stubbornly to censor and block Telegram. Now the unloved digital network is suddenly being celebrated as a national achievement and Russia’s trademark in the world. The Moscow rulers’ relationship with Telegram is pretty broken, but they are trying to make the best of Durov’s crisis.
Riot moderator Olga Skabeeva doubts whether her Telegram chats are still safe. Russian authorities strongly recommend deleting all chats. The Russian military has put a new communication channel into operation. All of this in case French authorities gain access to Telegram encryption during the course of the proceedings.
The excitement is so great because many Russians have relied on Telegram for years, militaristic Z-bloggers as well as Duma deputies and opposition members. Russia’s chief propagandists bombard people via their Telegram channels, while the service for exiled media in the EU is the only way to serve their audience in Russia on a daily basis. Russian governors maintain a direct line to the people via Telegram. And in the attacked Ukraine, politicians and authorities also use this channel to send their message to the world. In the West, on the other hand, Telegram is also a platform and refuge for right-wing radical and Kremlin-loyal groups who claim they cannot express their opinions freely. In addition, there are criminals of all kinds and possibly terrorists, and this is precisely why the French proceedings against Durov are now underway.
This article comes from ZEIT No. 38/2024. You can read the entire issue here. Discover issue
“Freedom for all!” is one of the slogans that the Telegram boss likes to repeat. He presents himself as a strong man in a harsh world. In photos, Durow presents himself with an upper body that has been buffed up in the gym, which makes you suspect that an AI might have perfected his appearance. He sends out videos in which he gets into an ice-filled bathtub. And he lets the world know that he likes to help infertile couples with his powerful sperm. He has already fathered over a hundred children in this way.
Above all, he boasts about his libertarian mission for freedom. In the spring, he gave an interview to the American conspiracy talker Tucker Carlson in which he spoke about the attempts of the Russian and American authorities to get hold of the Telegram data. In 2014, the Russian secret service FSB wanted the data of Ukrainian Maidan demonstrators. In 2021, the American FBI wanted the chats of the ringleaders of the attempted coup on January 6 in the Capitol. “I wanted to be free and not accept orders from anyone,” says Durov. “I don’t live to get rich, but to be free.” His mission is to “help other people become free.” The Russian writer and author of the book The Durow Code, Nikolai Kononov speaks of a “libertarian, somewhat Darwinian concept of freedom that rejects transnational regulation and prefers the self-regulation of the free man.” Durov promotes himself as an indomitable figure with a credibility that collapses upon closer inspection.
… like Putin in Siberia in 2009. © Alexey Druzhinin/afp/Getty Images
He claims that he left Russia after the FSB’s attempts to expose the Maidan protesters in 2014 and never returned. That is a lie. After 2014, he lived first in the Caribbean and then in Dubai. But a leak in the FSB border guard agency’s data storage revealed that Durov had entered Russia at least fifty times since 2014. His disputes with the FSB between 2018 and 2020 were real. At the time, Russian regulators wanted to force him to hand over encryption. When Durov refused, Telegram was blocked. Many suffered from the blockade: universities, service providers, companies. Durov stopped traveling to Russia in 2018 and did not return until 2020, when digital communication became even more important during the Covid pandemic. He welcomed statements in the State Duma that Telegram would no longer be blocked if the service showed more cooperation. Durov promised that Telegram would “effectively remove extremist propaganda” in the future. He also wanted to support the state when it came to fighting “terrorists.” The only problem is that authorities and courts loyal to the regime also classify political opposition or criticism of Russia’s wars of aggression as “extremist” or “terrorist.”
In Moscow, the powerful are suddenly discovering freedom. For days, the head of the social network Telegram, who is being held in France, has been the main topic of conversation in Russia. Pavel Durov, who has at least four passports – as far as is known – is being investigated for aiding and abetting drug trafficking, child abuse, money laundering and other crimes. After a temporary arrest, the French judiciary released Durov on bail, but he is not allowed to leave France for the time being. Russian politicians and propaganda broadcasters are now demanding that Paris let “our boy” leave the country and are mocking the fact that freedom in the West is apparently not very widespread.
