Russian military bloggers are panicking after Pavel Durov, billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at a Paris airport on Saturday evening.
As news broke that Russian-born Durov was detained after his private jet landed at Le Bourget airport, pro-war military analysts and bloggers took to the platform to lament the future of the conflict in Ukraine, highlighting that Telegram is a critical means of communication within the Russian army.
The 39-year-old founder of Telegram, a dual French and Russian citizen, was arrested as part of an investigation which alleges that the messaging platform has been used for fraud, drug trafficking, money laundering, and other offenses, French media reported.
Telegram, launched in 2013, issued a statement late on Sunday saying that Durov “has nothing to hide” and that it abides by all EU laws. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” it said.
Responding to the news, Russian journalist Alexander Sladkov said that Russia’s military conducts half of its communications via the messaging app, and said an alternative must be created “urgently.”
“Pavel Durov was arrested. This attack on the owner of [Telegram], on which half of the communications in the [war] are held, was expected. Now we urgently need to create a Russian military messenger,” he wrote.
“Well, was it impossible to think about this earlier?! Why did the Wagner Group have such a messenger, but the armed forces of our great Russia do not!?!?” Sladkov said, referring to the Russian paramilitary outfit which was led by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin. “And there is no one to punish. Or maybe we shouldn’t look for the guilty? Russia’s punishment is carelessness. And this is a nightmare.”
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Russian military blogger Alexei Sukonkin said Durov’s arrest “raises a host of problems that need to be addressed immediately.”
“Because: Telegram is currently…the basis of military communications,” he wrote. “From now on, all of this is under threat. Isn’t this August’s main tragedy?”
The Russian Telegram channel Rybar, founded by Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former employee of Russia’s Defense Ministry, similarly pointed out that Telegram “has now become almost the main means of controlling units in the [Ukraine war] zone.”
“It will be very sad and at the same time funny if the catalyst for changes in approaches to communications and control in the [Russian] armed forces is the arrest of Pavel Durov,” the channel said. “And not the purely military problems that had accumulated over two years, to which the relevant department for some reason preferred to turn a blind eye.”
Russian newspapers published Monday also focused on the future of Telegram, running articles which asked: “If Telegram crashes, how will [our army] fight?” As well as suggestions that Telegram “might become a tool of NATO.”
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the matter during a press briefing on Monday, state-run news agency Tass reported.
“We don’t know yet what exactly Durov is accused of. We haven’t heard any official statements on this matter yet,” Peskov said. “Without this, it would be wrong to make statements.”
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