Macron denies any knowledge of Pavel Durov’s visit to Paris: “In our country there is a separation of powers”

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/08/30/macron-denies-any-knowledge-of-indicted-telegram-ceo-pavel-durovs-visit-to-paris-en-news

by duckanroll

12 comments

  1. >French President Emmanuel Macron has denied having any prior knowledge that Telegram founder Pavel Durov was travelling to Paris or that he had any plans to meet him during his stay.

    >Macron’s denial, which was [made](https://www.bfmtv.com/tech/pavel-durov-inculpe-en-france-emmanuel-macron-n-etait-pas-au-courant-de-la-venue-du-pdg-de-telegram_AV-202408290810.html) at a press conference in the Serbian capital Belgrade on Thursday, was prompted by a [claim](https://x.com/canardenchaine/status/1828438807697408059) made by French satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné that Durov had told the police officers who subsequently arrested him that he had flown to Paris to meet Macron for dinner.

    >Durov, who was [arrested](https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/08/25/russian-billionaire-telegram-founder-pavel-durov-arrested-in-paris-en-news) on Saturday evening upon arrival at Le Bourget Airport in Paris, was [indicted](https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/08/28/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-charged-in-france-freed-under-judicial-control-en-news) on multiple criminal charges by the French Prosecutor General’s Office on Wednesday evening. He has since then been released on a €5 million bail bond and placed under judicial supervision.

    >“In our country there is a separation of powers. This was an independent decision by the French legal system. It is a lie that I invited him. I had no plans to meet Durov either late last week or in the days ahead,” Macron said.

    >The French president also called the decision to grant Durov French citizenship in 2018 “fully justified”, adding that it was “right” to reward those who achieved global success and made an effort to learn French with a French passport.

    >The Wall Street Journal [reported](https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/08/28/wsj-telegram-founder-durovs-phone-hacked-by-french-secret-services-in-2017-en-news) on Wednesday that the French secret services had colluded with the United Arab Emirates to hack Durov’s iPhone in 2017. The WSJ also revealed that Macron had suggested Durov move Telegram’s headquarters to Paris in 2018, an offer that Durov ultimately declined.

    >[Dubbed](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240825-durov-mysterious-and-controversial-telegram-founder) “Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg” by some, Durov is estimated to be worth €13.9 billion by Forbes, having founded the Telegram messaging app, which now has close to 1 billion users, in 2013. He has been based in Dubai since 2017.

  3. It makes sense. Although this may change if populists and radicals come to power. Democracy can be destroyed, it must be protected, and the independence of institutions must be defended.

    But before the kids start writing their nonsense about privacy, I can draw the following conclusion:

    Privacy is under threat because of the law on scanning chats, which always fails, not because of the Durov situation.

    Telegram obviously has very weak moderation. For example, the Russian Nazis from the Rusich group have a public channel with 100,000 subscribers. At the same time, Durov is blocking the bot of Russian opposition leader Navalny.

    All companies cooperate with governments when there are court decisions. They have a transparent page about this on their website. For example
    * [https://tuta.com/blog/transparency-report](https://tuta.com/blog/transparency-report)
    * [https://signal.org/bigbrother/](https://signal.org/bigbrother/)

    Telegram obviously cooperates with governments and court decisions in other countries. [https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/29/telegram-shares-data-of-users-accused-of-copyright-violation-following-court-order/](https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/29/telegram-shares-data-of-users-accused-of-copyright-violation-following-court-order/)

    Here is what the official bot called Transparency Report (@ transparency) writes to me (the bot does not provide transparent information about all countries)

    >**Note:** for a court decision to be relevant, it must come from a country with a high enough [democracy index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index) to be considered a **democracy**. Only the IP address and the phone number may be shared.

    Durov, a French citizen, must respect the laws of France.

    >However, the WSJ notes, there is no indication of a link between the events described and Durov’s current detention. The newspaper’s source close to Durov said that for years Telegram had been ignoring summonses and court orders sent to its mailboxes, demanding cooperation with the authorities in the fight against the spread of illegal content.

    [https://theins.press/news/274173](https://theins.press/news/274173)

    By the way, it’s funny that Telegram [lies](https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/29/telegram-shares-data-of-users-accused-of-copyright-violation-following-court-order/) on its [website](https://telegram.org/faq?setln=en#q-do-you-process-data-requests)

    >To this day, we have disclosed 0 bytes of user data to third parties, including governments.

  5. Durov’s own fault for accepting the citizenship and believing Europe is not a dictatorship. Should’ve known better.

  7. UAE and France have extradition arrangements with each other. If Durov a dual UAE and French citizen had a connection of crimes he was accused, then why did the French government not ask the Emirates to extradite him to France and face a criminal persecution?

  8. Love the old school cold war era lol menaity lol never happend here lol

  9. Me grabbing popcorn, again, and watch russians cry…

  11. Yeah its always seperation of power as long as its comfortable

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