Pavel Durov on Signal

I think i wasn’t clear. It’s not that I think Russia wouldn’t do it. And actually they have done it, including with Telegram. I am just saying that since Russia is now completely and technically shutting down Telegram on its territory, Telegram is becoming worthless to them. What is written in the article you mention is not necessarily surprising. A big lot of Russian government propaganda was through Telegram channels and groups. Telegram has been a tool of choice even for some military in Russia. Telegram was so big in Russia that it was a best tool for surveillance and propaganda. But now Russia thinks the opposition’s use of Telegram is too important and they sacrifice their own use by shutting it down. Plus, the article doesn’t mention whether Durov’s entering Russia was legally or not. Russia is big and there are countless points of illegal entrance. It’s possible that intel has just known afterwards that Durov was there, without being able to know it when it was happening. Finally, since Russia is really good at honeypot and misleading, it could quite easily have organised to send an anonymous spreadsheet then a corroborating FSB “leak”. (I don’t believe it is the case, i am just pointing that we are simple mortals who shouldn’t hold too tight on any opinion or belief in that kind of matter.)