Larry Johnson on Durov Arrest, and the Censorship Regime

Aug. 26—The French arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov is driven by the West’s desire to surveil online activity and suppress criticism of its foreign policy, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity cofounder Larry Johnson told Sputnik: “I think the charges are all implausible, false. They’re charging him reportedly with terrorism. And with fraud. So this clearly smacks of a trumped-up political case. They’re going to charge him with terrorism because he has refused to censor certain groups, people that support Hamas are allowed to communicate freely on Telegram. Telegram is one of the few channels that actually allows information that’s critical of Western policy to go on. I think that’s really at the root of this.” [Emphasis in original.]

Johnson added: "There was a time when [Durov] was considered friendly with [French President Emmanual] Macron. But that’s clearly come and gone because this kind of arrest would not have happened without Macron’s knowledge and approval.

“It’s possible that he’s being turned into a bargaining chip. But the question is, who’s going to bargain for him? He walked away from Russia [in 2014] ...The fact of the matter is he left Russia and accepted French citizenship and has chosen to reside in the [United] Arab Emirates. So, he’s not high on the priority list of Russian intelligence to get him back by any stretch. He’s of no use to Russia in that regard.

“I think the Westerners—the French in particular—have made a mistake in grabbing him because they think that this is going to somehow create leverage or create an issue with Russia….”

“I think the major issue with respect to the West is the coverage that [Telegram] provides about what’s going on in Ukraine and the coverage he allows with respect to the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in the Middle East and in Gaza and the West Bank. I think particularly the last issue has rankled the Israelis quite a bit. And they’ve been looking to shut him down. The French reportedly have been looking to shut Telegram down. So we’ll see.

“They’ve already gone after Dimitri Simes. Dimitri is an American who became a naturalized American [citizen] in the 1970s because he was a dissident against the Soviet Union, against the Communist Party. And now the very country that he fled to for freedom and protection has turned on him and has unleashed our version of the secret police on him.” Johnson was referring to the FBI raid on Simes’ Rappahannock, Virginia estate Aug. 13 Simes,  six days after the upstate New Home of former UN weapons inspector and NATO critic Scott Ritter was raided by the FBI. Simes, who lives in Moscow, was not charged with any crime, and was not informed by any law enforcement of the raid or what it was for, nor had he been asked for any documents by U.S. authorities. Ritter has also not been charged,