At 8:00PM today French gendarme arrested Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, a secure messaging platform, in a French airport on a connecting flight from a trip to Azerbaijan. The charges, not a single one of which relates to Durov personally, are trumped up charges for fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime, and promotion of terrorism.
Detained in France on Ukraine’s ‘Independence Day,’ Durov’s arrest is the result of a conspiracy hatched by pro-NATO extremists who seek to subject Mr. Durov to exactly the same type of judicial process America’s Department of Justice subjected the former founder, owner, or operator of the famous open source email service, Lavabit.
In exactly same month more than 11 years ago, the anti-Constitutional activists in the Federal government, the sum total of whose activity continues to accumulate hundreds of billions of dollars for America’s Federal debt (already at $35 trillion), ordered Lavabit to suspend its service (i.e., tortuous interference on a mass, anti-public scale) after requesting Ladar Levison, the company owner, to surrend its Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) private keys for each and every single user in order to allow the government to spy on Edward Snowden’s email.
In an article published by the New Yorker, a pro-NATO outfit publishing articles in support of the U.S.-led proxy war against Russia, the authors, commenting response to America’s decision to cast a wide net on all of Lavabit’s users, quoted Ladar Levison as writing that “his company had ‘already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.’ But he pointed to two things that were lacking: ‘congressional action or a strong judicial precedent.’ Until then, he said, ‘I would strongly recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.”[1]
While Ladar Levison initially believed in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, its Bill of Amendment, the Courts, lawyers, or the ‘American justice system,’ he quickly learned that one of the most anti-Constitutional aspects of the United States is its to subversion of the entire process to its advantage, programming a criminal case from the beginning to the end. In his book, Secrets, lies and Snowden’s email: why I was forced to shut down Lavabit, Levinson noted how contrary to the spirit, tradition, or letter of American law the government. Levinson wrote how after being contacted by anti-Constitutional activists at the constitutionally baseless FBI, he was subpoenaed to appear in Federal court on short notice without legal representation. In addition to the government’s refusal to provide Levinson with both notice as well as hearing on the government’s request to obtain Lavabit’s entire user base of information, the government petitioned for him to be held in contempt of Court. On appeal, the Court denied him any relief, arguing that he had no made no objection but because there had been no hearing, no objection could have been raised. Consequently, The Court affirmed the lower Court’s order of contempt against him, since it was undisputed. By the same logic, he was unable to dispute the charge because there had been no hearing to do it in. In short, the government ‘programmed’ Mr. Levison’s case so that he would not be able to enjoy a single one of the freedoms Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or its Bill of Amendment guarantee.
In contrast with Lavabit or Ladar Levison, however, the pro-NATO extremists behind Durov’s arrest do not seek access merely to ‘private keys’ but to everything. Shortly before his arrest, Durov gave an interview to Tucker Carlson published on April 16th, 2024. In the interview, Durov describes how the Federal Bureau of Investigations, a domestic terrorist organization, sought to hire one or more of Pavel Durov’s engineers from Telegram.
Durov explains how the FBI agents aim to recruit his engineer to work for the FBI covertly for the FBI while remaining an engineer at Telegram. The engineer relayed to Durov that the FBI asked about the feasibility of swapping one or more open source libraries for ones the FBI utilizes to create, maintain, or expand so-called ‘back doors.’ A ‘back door’ would provide the FBI would full control over any or all aspects of Telegram’s user base (i.e., ‘everything’).
Apparently under the direction of a Russian party called Новые Люди, Russians, mostly dressed in light blue vests but some unaffiliated with any particular Russian party, swarmed the French embassy in Moscow on Sunday morning, protesting Durov’s arrest.
Carrying the characteristic symbol of Telegram’s messaging service, a white folded paper airplane, these Russians surrounded the embassy, shoving the paper airplanes into the French embassy’s hedgerows, throwing them into the compound, or sent them crashing into the embassy’s building, signaling their support for Durov’s release.
Durov’s arrest signifies a fundamental shift in the overall trajectory of the pro-NATO ruling elite in the west. Whereas the treatment of Assange, Manning, Snowden and Wikileaks became part of a far broader assault on basic, democratic, or human right internationally under the guise of the ‘war on terror,’ none of these individuals figured prominently into NATO’s calculations for imperialist plunder of Russia. The criminalization of fundamental rights such as freedom of speech and associations intended to protect the interests of the parasitic corporate, financial, ruling elites against Assange, Manning, Snowden and Wikileaks differs from Durov, as the deepening capitalist crisis entered into a new phase with the outbreak of war on the eastern European mainland in a severe breakdown of global order. Durov’s arrest represents a shift away from prosecuting individuals related to the news, media, or information towards a pursuit of NATO’s geopolitical interests in particular. This is profound shift in its trajectory.
While there can be no doubt that the police state methods used to persecute Assange are being directed more broadly against masses of working people as they enter struggle against austerity and the drive to war, the bourgeoisie centered in Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Rome, London, or Washington are becoming increasingly desperate with the outcome of the outbreak of that war.
Durov’s arrest is, above all, one of the responses to the futility of the Kursk operation, on the one hand, while, on the other hand, a response to the rising sentiment among layers of the Ukrainian population that something must be done to stop the futile war. It is the first time in the history of prosecutions that the ruling elite target the means of dissemination rather than a person responsible for a specific type of dissemination. These facts indicate that the ruling elite have shifted substantially away from merely political persecutions to openly totalitarian methodologies, where the aim is not the suppression of speech here or there but its suppression altogether anywhere.
Nothing underscores the increasing desperation of these powers than the Kursk operation. The Kursk operation, launched on August 6th, 2024, has resulted in nothing but the promotion of Syrsky to the rank of general; while the Ukrainian high command sought ‘to turn the tables’ on the Russians in Pokrovsk, the Russians continued advancing on Pokrovsk well after the start of Ukraine’s operation. The Economist, for instance, recently published an article, confirming the author’s analysis that as a shaping operation the Kursk operation would have only limited success (in terms of a judgement most favorable Ukraine). In an article entitled, “The Kremlin is close to crushing Pokrovsk, a vital Ukrainian town,” the authors explain how Russia dashed hopes of a major troop redeployment.
“The hope that Russia might respond by moving troops from Pokrovsk has been supplanted by the realisation that it has not. Ukrainian security sources confirm that while Russia has moved troops from other sections of the eastern front line, it reinforced around Pokrovsk. Ukraine meanwhile redeployed special forces units to Kursk, and is patching up the Pokrovsk front with untested formations. ‘The Russians have figured things out and aren’t taking the bait,’ complains Dublin.”
It is true that Ukraine seized in Kursk more than double the amount of territory Russia seized in the Donbas the last year. In real numbers, however, the amount of territory the Ukrainians occupy in the Kursk region is like the smallest doll in a matryoshka. The amount of territory is but a speck in comparison to the Donbas, which covers the majority of Ukraine’s coastal sea line with the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, as well as no less than five regions, Crimea, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Lughansk. The BBC, which is one of the more honest investigatory bodies exploring the war, published an elucidatory map. The map puts the Kursk territory in perspective against the Donbas.
In an article whose most appropriate title would have been, “Ten days that turned the tables on Pokrovsk,” the Financial Times, one of the three mouthpieces for M16 (The Times, the Telegraph), attempted to spin the outcome of the Kursk operation but the truth is apparent. In the article, the authors note: “Ukrainian lawmakers and soldiers worry that the situation could quickly change if Russia advances further into eastern Ukraine.” With Pokrovsk evacuated, The Russians, who are advancing through heavily fortified villages, are closing the gap rapidly, causing the worry to deepen substantially.
It is amidst deepening worry caused Russia’s continued advance on Pokrovsk that NATO, which is desperate for something, anything, has decided to arrest Pavel Durov. NATO estimates that access to Russian communication channels may afford the Ukrainians a ‘strategic, tactical, or operational’ advantage on the battlefield. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While Russians communicate on the battlefield with the help of Telegram, for better or for worse, the type, quality, or amount of information to be discerned is likely far less than anything remotely capable of ‘turning the tables’ on the Russians, especially in Pokrovsk.
Ukrainians, who are becoming aware of the scheme to exploit “Eastern European manpower” with the “technological capabilities of NATO” to save the European Union’s powerhouses from ‘body bags, have been to engage in armed protest. In at least one video circulating on social media, a Ukrainian, who refuses to be bagged for recruitment, pulls a pistol on the recruiters, threatening them with the same fate the gunman would face on the frontlines.
It is first time a Ukrainian engages in armed resistance to stop forced mobilization. Ukrainians, however, require far more than a lone gunman. The Ukrainians must band together in protest against NATO’s conspiracy, engaging in collectivized action to terminate any or all mobilizations, forced or otherwise. Ukrainians must build rank-and-file assemblies, through which to build a broad, organized, centrally led coalition to demand a ceasefire.
Alongside the request for a ceasefire, Ukrainians must take up the struggle together with Russians to preserve basic, democratic, or human rights. In prosecuting the struggle to preserve the freedom of the press, the right to free speech, the right to be free from unwarranted searches or seizures, or the right to be secure in one’s papers or personal effects such as a cell phone or apps on a cell phone, members of the working class must wage a dual struggle, overthrowing the leadership of the ICFI, the WSWS, or the SEP, together with a fight against the fat, overladen, wasteful anti-Constitutional bureaucracy that not only feeds but breeds the sort of sadistic characters that staff these organizations with gaslighting propaganda artists who substitute ‘general’ with an ‘all-out’ strike to ensure no strike ends but in a defeat for workers.
[1] – [ “The N.S.A. and Its Targets: Lavabit Shuts Down”. The New Yorker. August 8, 2013]