Telegram turmoil a complication for Russian troops and militant war bloggers

Pavel Durov might have been detained on allegations that his Telegram platform was used for facilitating crimes like child pornography or drug trafficking, but for Russian pro-war bloggers, he’s like the head of communications of the Russian army. They’re now very worried. But why?

When American conservatives, libertarians, and the Kremlin spokespeople, official or not, are up in arms over the arrest of Durov, the CEO of social media platform Telegram, in France, you better be sure that something’s up.

The motives are quite different, of course. Pro-free speech advocates in the US, such as Elon Musk, owner of X, are railing against alleged censorship – even though the French have already said Durov’s temporary arrest is related to Telegram’s failure or unwillingness to curb criminal or harmful activity on the platform.

The Russians, though, are worried about something else entirely. Officially, the Kremlin has probably not yet made up its mind how to spin Durov’s arrest.

But the Institute for the Study of War think tank has already pointed out that Telegram is “the main alternative to official communications for Russian military personnel in Ukraine.” In contrast, the Russian military blogger channel “Povernutie na Z Voine” was even blunter: “They practically detained the head of communication of the Russian army.”

Lack of restrictions on violent content

According to French media reports, Durov – who has “nothing to hide” – was arrested at the request of a special unit within France's Interior Ministry in charge of investigating crimes against minors.

Durov might not even be the ultimate target because the prosecutor’s statement says that the probe is of an unnamed person. However, the accusations against Durov also include improper use of cryptography and failure to allow authorized law enforcement interception.

Due to its much-hyped encryption features (they’re not real, experts say) and lack of moderation, Telegram indeed attracts a lot of drug dealers, crypto crooks, and even pedophiles.

But the platform has also become a tool for battlefield communications for the Russian military fighting in Ukraine and a megaphone for the so-called Z-bloggers – pro-Kremlin war propagandists who are spreading Moscow’s narrative about the invasion.

“It's not just a news source, but it's a kind of key messenger that is used for coordination of action at different levels, to store videos, to share large files and all this kind of things,” Christine Dugoin-Clément, a researcher at the Sorbonne Business School, told Euronews.

“You've got a lot of channels more or less directly connected with the Kremlin or the Department of Defence of Russia.”

“To date, Telegram has become perhaps the main means of units’ command and control,” a pro-war group of Russian military analysts known as Rybar wrote on Telegram.

Soldiers – both Russians and Ukrainians – have also been documenting their lives and deaths on Telegram, once again exploiting the platform’s lack of restrictions on violent content. Even casual passers-by have seen the gruesome combat videos from Ukraine on this particular platform.

Exfiltrated “years of messages”

Russia is pretty much in control of Telegram, though, albeit not directly—under the country’s laws, Telegram channels followed by 500,000 users or more have to provide all information on those users if Russian authorities request it.

In theory, this means that whatever content about the war is out there, it’s not exactly hurting the Kremlin – some hackers even say that Telegram is an operation of Russia’s Federal Security Service.

That’s why Moscow might be worried that Durov could agree to hand over encryption keys to the French authorities. This would allow them access to the platform and any communications on it.

“Durov’s arrest may have political grounds and be a tool for gaining access to the personal information of Telegram users,” the Deputy Speaker of the Russian Duma Vladislav Davankov said in a Telegram statement. “This cannot be allowed.”

Margarita Simonyan, an infamous Russian state media executive and prominent propagandist, also said: “Everyone who got accustomed to using Telegram for sensitive conversations and chats must immediately delete them, and don’t do it in the future.”

One Kremlin insider speculated in an interview with Meduza, an independent Russian-language news outlet operating from Latvia: “Could Durov hand something over to the West? Sure, he could. He’s not unbreakable. When we pressured him over VKontakte, he gave it up pretty quickly.”

Finally, an influential pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, Baza, disclosed that some Russian officials and security personnel have already been advised – but not ordered – to delete sensitive communications from Telegram.

“If Durov knew that there was a case against him in France, and he still chose to go there, it could mean he’d made a deal with the authorities.”

Ivan Zhdanov.

That might not help, though. A hacker “root,” writing in “The Hacker’s Choice,” said there was an “undocumented” API on Telegram that allows an attacker to download any group chat.

“We exfiltrated ALL messages. Years and years of messages. All usernames, meta-data, media, voice recordings, join-messages. It’s all there and nicely curated as HTML,” said the hacker.

No alternative to Telegram

In short, it’s quite the conundrum. In June, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab said that the Kremlin was utilizing Telegram for its own purposes – but it now faces the threat of losing control over user data.

The blog site Dva Mayora said that Russian specialists have for years been working on an alternative to Telegram.

According to the blog post, the Russian army's Main Communications Directorate has “not shown any real interest” in getting such a system to Russian soldiers. Quite obviously, the Kremlin doesn’t trust platforms created in the West.

The site said Durov's arrest may speed up the development of an independent military communications system. For now, Russian government officials – who still post on Telegram – are waiting for more news.

However, Ivan Zhdanov, current head of Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, has already warned: “If he [Durov] knew that there was a case against him in France, and he still chose to go there, it could mean he’d made a deal with the authorities.”