The Wall Street Journal said that the Russian military has become afraid for its secrets after the arrest of the founder of Telegram, as the application has become a very important communication tool for the Russian forces during War in Ukraine.
The newspaper reported that the Russian and Ukrainian armies have recently begun to rely on digital platforms, with Ukrainians preferring Western platforms such as Signal and Discord, while the Russians chose Telegram because it is based in the UAE, which maintains good relations with Moscow, and the Russians believe that the application is more resistant to Western intelligence.
The newspaper added that the Russian authorities responded with unusual anger to the arrest of the founder of Telegram by the French authorities. Bafil Durovwhich Russian soldiers and spies rely on for battlefield communications, including directing artillery, coordinating movements and gathering intelligence.
Operations coordination
“Many joke that the arrest of Pavel Durov is essentially the arrest of the chief signal officer of the Russian armed forces,” said Alexei Rogozin, an adviser to the Russian parliament and a former senior executive in the military industry.
The Russian military quickly discovered after its 2022 war on Ukraine that its units had difficulty communicating with each other and that unencrypted radio traffic could be easily intercepted by the Ukrainians.
Rogozin said that although it may seem strange, intelligence transfer, artillery targeting, drone feeds and much more are now being done frequently via Telegram.
Telegram is not an officially authorized communications system for the Russian military, but its private chat and direct messaging systems are used tactically by soldiers and some military units for coordination on the battlefield, said Dmitry Alperovich, head of Silverado Policy.
Russian volunteers who provide drones, night-vision goggles, vehicles and other aid to military units also operate almost exclusively through the app.
Durov boasts that Telegram's encryption is superior to that offered by platforms like Signal and WhatsApp, both of which are banned in Russia.
Durov's arrest
Durov was arrested at an airport near Paris on Saturday evening, and was subjected to an official investigation by the French Public Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday. He was released after being placed under strict judicial supervision.
Durov, 39, is of Russian origin and holds French and Emirati citizenship. His total wealth is estimated at $15 billion.
The detention of the Telegram founder has sparked debate about the limits of free speech and law enforcement, and underscored the tense relationship between governments and Telegram, which has about a billion users.
These events come in light of Durov's long history of confrontation with government authorities, as he left Russia In 2014, after refusing to comply with Russian government demands regarding his former platform VK, Durov now resides in Dubai, where Telegram is headquartered.
