“In reality, France has just arrested the head of communications for the Russian army.” The observation, barely exaggerated, is formulated by the military Telegram channel “PNV”as soon as the arrest of Pavel Durov in Paris was announced, Saturday, August 24. It illustrates the concern of military and pro-war communication channels, which have grown exponentially on the Telegram application since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The community of “voenkor”, these Russians who comment on the advances of the front, has in fact taken the ninety-six-hour police custody of Pavel Durov as a direct threat to the existence of their favorite messaging service. Released on bail but indicted, the leader is not currently allowed to leave French territory.
“This is the main military messenger at the moment, an alternative to closed military communications,” pro-Russian blogger Andrei Medvedev analyses. “Now the question of creating a military messenger for our army is of vital importance. Because it is difficult to predict how long Telegram will remain as we know it,” he asks his 187,000 subscribers. “It will be very sad, and at the same time funny, if the arrest of Pavel Durov becomes a catalyst for a change in the control of communications of the Russian armed forces,” commented the influential channel “Rybar”, close to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Central military communication tool
Most units of the Russian army, battalions or platoons, in fact use discussion spaces on Telegram to discuss their needs, organize fundraising or the purchase of military equipment. Several Russian personalities have also called for less use of Telegram, even if the application is rarely used by the military hierarchy for strategic reflections.
In addition, the vast network of “military correspondents” regularly provides exclusive content such as videos of combat operations, in order to increase their popularity and boost their income.
The Last Network Resisting Russian Internet Control
Outside the military galaxy, Pavel Durov’s arrest has sparked outrage among a liberal fringe of the Russian population. The hashtag “#FreedomForDurov” has gained some momentum in Russia, and critical voices have come to the defense of the Telegram founder, such as Alexei Venediktov, the former editor-in-chief of the now-closed Echo of Moscow radio station. “It’s clear that this case is political,” estimated the journalist in an interview on September 1, deploring the legal troubles of the founder of Telegram. Georgy Alburov, collaborator of the team of the former opponent Alexei Navalny – who died in prison last year -, declared that “the arrest of Mr. Durov, besides the fact that it is, judging by the charges currently known, extremely unjust […]is also a severe blow to freedom of expression.”
Russians’ fondness for Telegram is due to an increasingly strict lockdown of the Internet. Shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, social networks Facebook and Instagram were blocked, and their parent company, Meta, was labeled an “extremist organization.” WhatsApp was not affected by the blockade. But in mid-July, Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma’s (the lower house of the Russian parliament) committee on information policy, information technology and communications, cast doubt on the situation. “Technological measures, such as slowing down [de l’application]are already applied to WhatsApp, he said in an interview. The next step could well be blocking. No such decision has yet been taken.”
Russian authorities have also begun to be reduced sharply the speed of access to YouTube videos, announced at the end of July 2024 by the Duma, in retaliation for the censorship carried out by the Google group, which owns the platform, against the channels of pro-Kremlin Russian users. In this context, Telegram remains the only island more or less exempt from these restrictions, where protest movements against the Kremlin can arise: the video of the announcement of the “march on Moscow” by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former head of the Wagner mercenary group, attracted 11 billion views on Russian-language channelsCivil initiatives such as the movement of women and mothers of soldiers, demanding the demobilization of their sons at the front, also emerged there.
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