The director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence (SVR) of Russia Sergey Naryshkin expects that the founder and general director of the Telegram messenger Pavel Durov will not allow the transmission of sensitive information to the West after his detention in France. TASS said about this, answering the question of whether there are concerns of Durov’s transmission sensitive to Russia.
“I really hope that he will not allow this,” said Naryshkin.
Durov’s detention
According to Russian and French media reports, Durov was detained on August 24 for access to illegal content in Telegram. The detention of a famous entrepreneur provoked a wide resonance.
Telegram itself said that the company is comparing the EU laws, and called the accusations against Durov “absurd”.
In turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the embassy in Paris sent a note to the Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding a consular access to the detained founder of the messenger.
“The problem is that Pavel Durov has French citizenship. Accordingly, for Paris, for France, he is primarily a citizen of their country,” said Maria Zakharova, official representative of the Russian diplomatic mission.
The owner of the social network X, the American billionaire Ilon Musk called for the release of Durov.
The French judicial authorities on Sunday, August 25, extended the term of detention of the 39-year-old founder of the Telegram messenger for another 48 hours.
The founder of the popular social network VKontakte Pavel Durov left Russia in 2014.
Durov has citizenship of France, the Russian Federation, the UAE and St. Kits and Nevis. His fortune is estimated at almost $ 15 billion.
The monthly audience Telegram exceeded 900 million users.
To the question of whether the Russian side trusts the statements of the West that Kyiv independently planned the operation in the Kursk region and did not agree with anyone, Naryshkin answered negatively.
“No, there is no trust in such statements,” he said.
In addition, Naryshkin noted that the foreign intelligence service (SVR) of Russia and the Central Intelligence Directorate (CIA) of the United States are “at least modest, but the exchange of information.”
“The official representatives of our intelligence services – the CIA and the SVR – work both in Washington and in Moscow. There is even a modest but exchange of information. Such contact exists and is supported. And this is good,” he said.