The French arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov is driven by the West’s desire to surveil online activity and suppress criticism of its foreign policy, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity cofounder Larry Johnson told Sputnik: “I think the charges are all implausible, false. They’re charging him reportedly with terrorism. And with fraud. So this clearly smacks of a trumped-up political case. They’re going to charge him with terrorism because he has refused to censor certain groups, people that support Hamas are allowed to communicate freely on Telegram. Telegram is one of the few channels that actually allows information that’s critical of Western policy to go on. I think that’s really at the root of this.” [Emphasis in original.]
Johnson added: “There was a time when [Durov] was considered friendly with Macron. But that’s clearly come and gone because this kind of arrest would not have happened without Macron’s knowledge and approval.
“It’s possible that he’s being turned into a bargaining chip. But the question is, who’s going to bargain for him? He walked away from Russia” in 2014. “The fact of the matter is he left Russia and accepted French citizenship, and has chosen to reside in the [United] Arab Emirates. So he’s not high on the priority list of Russian intelligence to get him back by any stretch. He’s of no use to Russia in that regard.
