Russian authorities reacted with unusual fury to the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov, not because they are accustomed to protecting Russians. The fact is that this messenger is not just an app. Russian military and intelligence officers rely on it for front-line communications, artillery guidance, movement coordination and intelligence gathering.
The Wall Street Journal writes about this.
Aleksey Rogozin, an aide to the Russian parliament and former top military industry executive, noted: “Many people joke that the arrest of Pavel Durov is actually equivalent to the arrest of the chief signalman of the Russian armed forces.”
With the start of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, both sides began to actively use commercial platforms. The Ukrainian military prefers Western services such as Signal and Discord, while Russian troops have chosen Telegram, based in the United Arab Emirates, which maintains good relations with Moscow. The Russians consider this app to be less vulnerable to Western intelligence.
“Transmission of intelligence data, artillery guidance, transmission of drone channels and much more is now often done via Telegram,” Rogozin writes on his Telegram channel.
The WSJ notes that Russian troops are accessing Telegram through mobile networks or Starlink satellite terminals, which were initially used only by Ukrainian forces but can now be seen in Russian units in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
Although Telegram is not the official communication system of the Russian military, its private chats and direct messaging systems are actively used by soldiers and some units to coordinate actions on the battlefield, explains Dmitry Alperovich, head of the Silverado Policy Accelerator think tank in Washington.
Russian volunteers who supply drones, night vision scopes, vehicles and other aid to the military also work primarily via Telegram. The platform has become a “profitable tool” for Russian propagandists working closely with the Russian Ministry of Defense, the publication writes.
At the same time, after Durov’s arrest, a Russian soldier, host of the Telegram channel “Callsign Ossetian”, expressed his concern: “If our enemies penetrate Telegram, it will be difficult for us to pass a lot of information through encrypted and non-encrypted chats.”
WSJ notes that the Russian government’s reaction to Durov’s arrest in France was far more violent than might have been expected, given his departure from Russia in 2014 after refusing to hand over VKontakte user data to Russian intelligence services.
Western officials suggest that if Durov agrees to cooperate, the damage to the Russian security system could be significant. Telegram also plays a key role in sabotaging Russian intelligence services in Europe, an intelligence representative from one of the Western countries added.
Earlier, Kursor reported that Macron made an offer to Durov, but he turned it down.
