Saint Durov and the godless Zelenskyy. Russian Media Monitoring Report, August 19-25, 2024

The keys to Telegram

On August 24, the founder and CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, was detained in France. French law enforcement agencies accuse Durov of complicity in drug trafficking, fraud, and crimes against children due to the lack of moderation in the Telegram.

Russian propaganda reacted instantly, synchronized, and violently. Disinformers are trying to present the events around Durov as another fact of Russophobia, pressure on Russia, and anti-Russian provocation.

Russian propaganda's strategy for defending Durov consists of several narrative groups.

Before considering them, let's make a historical note. Telegram creates an image of a fighter for freedom of speech in Russia. In 2018, there was even a moment when it was "blocked" in Russia by a court order, but as our investigation shows (read here), this blocking looks like a planned show to create the right image. Now, the Russian propaganda machine constantly refers to its maneuver with the alleged blocking of Telegram.

1.The detention of Pavel Durov is a fight against freedom of speech

Russian influencers and officials immediately began to create a picture of Durov's detention as if he had been detained for political reasons. France and the collective West are thus putting pressure on freedom of speech: "Official Paris demonstrates not disregard but destruction of previously declared values, including freedom of speech."

The propaganda asserts that Telegram is one of the effective tools used by the Russian authorities to convey truthful information about Russia's policy. It is a channel to argue the position of Moscow and the Russian president. It is also an opportunity to reach out to ordinary Ukrainians so that they see that the Kyiv regime is the real enemy. That is why the West is trying to prevent Telegram from working.

Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says that international institutions are hypocritical for not seeing the crimes of the French authorities: "I just remembered how in 2018, a group of 26 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists and others, condemned the decision of a Russian court to block Telegram." According to Zakharova, this decision of the Russian court was absolutely legal. "It feels like Macron's Olympics are not over, and he continues to show the 'true face of France.'".'

Such extraordinary personalities as Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk have also spoken out about the pressure on freedom of speech. Journalist Tucker Carlson called Durov's arrest in France a warning to the owners of social media and platforms who refuse to censor the truth on the orders of the authorities. According to Musk, the detention was an advertisement for the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech. It is worth noting that these characters have repeatedly replicated fakes and pro-Russian narratives. They do not like being criticized for their lies and manipulations.

Durov is being molded into a new Russian Julian Assange: "It looks like Durov is the new Assange." If earlier, at some points, propagandists, maintaining the veneer of Durov's opposition, sometimes slightly criticized him, now he is, according to them, a genius who opposes Western intelligence services and protects Telegram from foreign interference: "Durov worked in the UAE. He claimed that he tried to set up an office to create Telegram in Berlin, London, San Francisco, and Singapore. He refused because the security services there were too strict requirements for him. He is a libertarian in his views, which means that he is in favor of individual freedom without the state. So, it turns out that France and the West have taken another step in the fight against freedom."," Durov said earlier that he had a plan of action in case of his arrest: the management of Telegram would be transferred to managers and his friends. And he is ready to go to jail but not to give up his freedom. We'll see."

2.Pavel Durov is an illegally detained Russian. He was detained because of his origin

Propaganda appeals to Durov's origin. The main narrative is that you will be discredited in the West just for being Russian and that wild Russophobia is flourishing in Western democracies.

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that Durov made a big mistake when he left Russia: "He miscalculated. For all our common enemies, he is now Russian and, therefore, unpredictable and dangerous. He is of a different blood. Definitely not Musk and not Zuckerberg (who is actively cooperating with the FBI, by the way). Durov must finally realize that one does not choose one's homeland, as well as times."

The head of the Safe Internet League of Russia, Ekaterina Mizulina, shouts, "He is our Russian genius, and we must fight for him to the end." And "the singer Shaman, who knows Durov personally, called on Durov to return to Russia because Russia is now the freest place in the world."

Durov's detention has allowed Russian propaganda to push the narrative that the West will never accept Russians, even those who are in opposition to Putin. That such a fate awaits all those who have left and those who do not support their country. After all, Russia is a big family, and Western countries are unpatriotic masses who do not understand the concept of love for the Fatherland and for whom the main values are money and gluttony for capitalist products: "He thought that his biggest problems were in Russia, and he left, then also obtained citizenship/residence permits in other countries. He wanted to be a brilliant 'man of the world' who lives a great life without a homeland."

Even if you cooperate with the West, you will be taken advantage of and still be squeezed: "Pavel Durov left Russia not to cooperate with the secret services. He even became a Paul du Rove. He partially cooperated with the Western intelligence services - at least, he strictly complied with the instructions to block RT in the countries where we are under sanctions. It did not help."

There is a lot of evidence that Durov's Telegram is actively cooperating with the FSB. For example, in March 2022, Oleg Matveichev, deputy head of the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications of Russia, said: "Durov has found a compromise with the FSB... Telegram has installed equipment so that all dangerous actors can be monitored." It is also known that in 2021, Telegram was blocked by Navalny's bot, Smart Voting, which is opposed to Putin, during the State Duma elections.

This is a kind of propaganda warning to those Russians who have left the country. If you don't come back, the same thing will happen to you.

And light propaganda used a new weapon - the prophecy of the deceased politician Zhirinovsky, who allegedly already predicted Durov's detention in the West: "Zhirinovsky's prediction about Durov found "'He added that he has a feeling that the messenger's founder' is not accepted by a foreign land."

3.They are trying to force Durov to work against Russia

Russian media claim that the collective West has opened a new page in the information war against Russia: "The detention of Pavel Durov, the co-founder of the messenger, may mark the opening of a new front in the ongoing information war."

The propaganda avoids mentioning or hinting that Telegram is cooperating with the Russian authorities.

Dmitry Medvedev says that he once offered Durov cooperation on serious crimes. Still, he refused: "Once, quite a long time ago, I asked Durov why he did not want to cooperate with law enforcement agencies on serious crimes. "This is my principled position," he said. "Then there will be serious problems in any country," I told him."

Medvedev made this "throw-in" for several reasons. This is his way of saying that the Russian authorities did not put pressure on Durov but only offered him cooperation in serious crimes. Durov refused, and no one pressured him. But Western countries are acting harshly and illegally.

It is worth noting here that Telegram is in no hurry to cooperate with democratic governments. The only public case of Telegram's cooperation with Western countries is Germany. After numerous requests to block extremist groups, which the Russians ignored, a German government newspaper published an open appeal to Durov, and he responded. After negotiations, German police announced the blocking of 81 channels and 90 groups. According to Spiegel, Telegram created an email for the police to communicate with.

And now propaganda is shouting that foreign intelligence agencies are trying to gain access to the messenger for their own purposes: "Telegram has now become the number one source of information in the world. It is the only social network where there is no political censorship. Durov's arrest is an attempt by NATO countries' intelligence services to establish political control over the Telegram social network."

It is worth explaining here that the term "political censorship" is used by Russian propaganda to mean social media efforts to get rid of or limit hate speech, conspiracy theories, violent videos, and the dominance of bots that promote narratives favorable to foreign governments. Thus, attempts to remove the hidden influence of Russia and other totalitarian regimes on the moods of democratic countries are declared political censorship.

According to the statements of the so-called Russian military commanders, the entire frontline relies on Telegram as a means of communication, so the prospect that foreign intelligence services could somehow influence the network is truly frightening for propaganda: "Because of Telegram's freedom, Russian army troops are actively using it in combat. Moreover, many people consider Telegram to be the main type of communication for the Russian army. Therefore, Durov's arrest is probably an attempt by the French and NATO intelligence services to establish control over the Russian army's communication and control system in the Eastern Ukraine", "Federation Council member Dmitry Rogozin has already compared Durov's arrest to the arrest of the Russian army's communications commander."

And top propagandist Margarita Simonyan is already calling for the traces to be covered up: "What is the main thing in the story with Durov? That everyone who is used to using the cart for sensitive conversations/correspondence should delete these messages right now and not do it again. Because Durov was locked up to take away the keys."

Along with France, the United States is called one of the initiators of the detention. This should reinforce the old Russian narrative that Washington gives orders to European countries: "The US intelligence services arrested Durov and are now interrogating him. There is no doubt about it. And the French authorities are just the executors. If Durov had flown to another EU country, other authorities would have been the executors"," US intelligence agencies are the main enemies of freedom in the world. Snowden, Assange, and Durov are their victims because they are for freedom."

The so-called political analyst and Kremlin henchman Sergei Markov even implicates Ukraine in Durov's detention: "Durov's flight from Baku to Paris. Durov really wanted to go around Ukraine. In every sense of the word, to go around. But he failed. Ukraine was waiting for Durov in Paris at the airport with handcuffs." 'The Ukrainian authorities took Durov's arrest very positively.'

He also offers the theory that Durov's arrest is part of a US plan to attack Russia in a devastating way: "According to this theory, NATO is preparing for a sharp escalation in Ukraine in order to defeat the Russian army before the US elections and, by defeating Russia, to get Harris elected president as the winner of the war.

There are three areas of escalation:

1. F-16s from NATO airfields strike deep into Russia and NATO pilots.
2. Massive official deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine. As instructors.
3. Some kind of terrorist attack, including against nuclear power plants.

Before this escalation, they were taking control of the main information resource, where there was no censorship yet."

And the so-called philosopher Alexander Dugin predicts the end of the Telegram: "What will happen to the Telegram now? Most likely, it's the end. Macron and the liberal Gestapo will demand the keys and codes to Telegram. The price of freedom. If Durov agrees, and so far he has been playing right-wing libertarianism in the spirit of Elon Musk and disagreeing, Telegram will be closed in Russia. If he disagrees, he will be imprisoned, like Assange. And then it would be the end of him."

The moment of Durov's release under court orders did not fall within the timeframe of this monitoring. We will see how Russian propaganda will describe it in the next monitoring.

Orthodox in the catacombs

It is interesting that, in this case, the Russians use particularly aggressive and disrespectful language against the Ukrainian authorities and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is recognized in the Orthodox world.

It all started when, on August 20, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted Bill No. 8371 on the regulation of religious organizations with a governing center in Russia.

The law should make it impossible for churches run by a state that is committing aggression against Ukraine, i.e., Russia, to operate. Religious organizations suspected of cooperating with the Russian Orthodox Church will be checked by an expert commission. Here, "church" refers to a specific religious community. For example, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which is controlled by Russia, has more than 10,000 communities, and the law provides for the inspection of those who have received complaints from citizens or local authorities. The commission that will inspect the churches is to be established by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (SESS). If the commission finds violations, the SESF will issue an order to the church to remedy the situation. If the ties with the aggressor country are not severed, the DESS will file a lawsuit against this particular legal entity in court, which will have the right to issue a ban. This means that the community may lose its legal status, and if it uses state or municipal property, it may lose it as well. The adopted law does not provide for a ban on meetings and prayers.

Russian propaganda has launched a real holy war against this law. After all, it undermines the position of Russia's last legal outpost inside Ukraine. Arguments are being used about the persecution of Christians and the protection of religious freedom.

On August 22, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church issued a statement comparing the law to the worst cases of persecution of Christians in different eras: "By its scale and centralized nature, this measure can surpass all previous historical repressions against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, including the persecution of the Brest Greek Catholic Union, and is comparable to such sad historical precedents such as the persecutions in the Roman Empire under Nero and Diocletian, the so-called de-Christianization of France during the French Revolution of the 18th century, atheist repressions in the Soviet Union and the destruction of the Albanian Orthodox Church in the 1960s by the regime of Enver Hoxha."

The Kremlin's information service constantly talks about the oppression of Orthodoxy in Ukraine. It defends the position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which is part of the Russian Orthodox Church. The propaganda constantly says that there is only one canonical church in Ukraine, the UOC, and the rest are schismatics. This primarily refers to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which is recognized by Constantinople as the main center of Orthodox Christianity.

Disinformers are beginning to claim that the Ukrainian government is atheistic, surpassing even the Soviet Union: "The stinking rotting Ukrainian regime has decided to surpass the atheism of the Soviet period. Although the USSR was an atheist country, it did not ban religions and individual beliefs," Liberal perversions and pseudo-pagan racist cults hastily manufactured by Anglo-Saxon curators have long been dominant in Ukraine. Now this orgy will acquire a special scope and intensity."

Interestingly, while defending the UOC, the propaganda does not even try to hide the fact that the church is affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate: "Neo-Nazi dogs decided to completely ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate."

Ukrainian politicians and Western intelligence services, who are trying to undermine the position of the Russian Orthodox Church in the world, are blamed for the split: "As you know, Poroshenko started this nasty story. To please his ambitions and to be elected president of Ukraine, he agreed with the West to split Orthodoxy and create the heretical OCU."

The United States wanted a religious war between Russia and Ukraine, so they pulled out the law card: "The plan was developed by Jeffrey Payet, the US ambassador to Greece and previously to Ukraine. The main goal of the plan is a religious war between Russia and Ukraine."

Propagandists write about the real persecution of the Orthodox in Ukraine. They compare it to the times of ancient Rome when Christians hid from the authorities in the catacombs: "The defeat of Ukrainian Orthodoxy and the persecution of Christians for their faith has begun."

For propaganda, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is a symbol of evil and the fight against Russia. It educates not only mental opponents of Russia but also real terrorists: "The population of Ukraine will be driven by terror and totalitarian propaganda into the totalitarian criminal sect of the OCU. So, young Ukrainian guys blow themselves up on buses in Russia with Shaheed belts. They will take ISIS, the Uniate Church in Ukraine, and Azov as a model."

Zelensky is accused of being a Jew who is starting a persecution of the Orthodox. And propagandists predict outbreaks of anti-Semitism for such decisions: "Now, with his pogrom of the Orthodox Church, Zelensky is inciting anti-Semitism in Ukraine, Russia, and other Orthodox countries. Speak out directly to condemn the destruction of the Orthodox Church - stop future Jewish pogroms!"

Officials such as Dmitry Medvedev hint that the list of goals of Russia's war against Ukraine should be supplemented by a paragraph on the desanctification of Ukraine and the punishment of the Ukrainian authorities as outright heretics: "This is full-fledged Satanism, which is professed by the cocaine creature and his ghouls. And which is actively supported by the "civilized West" in order to inflict maximum damage on Russia and its citizens," This story will not go away in Ukraine. The country will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah, and the demons will inevitably fall." The disinformers' leitmotif is "Orthodoxy will return to the holy Kyiv land only with our tanks."

Russian propaganda is also actively working for external audiences. Patriarch Kirill, a supporter of the war against Ukraine, writes letters to international organizations left and right: Primates of local Orthodox churches, the Pope, heads of ancient Eastern churches, heads of the Evangelical Association, the Anglican Communion, the World Council of Churches, the UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance, the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

But at the same time, he does not talk about the oppression of believers in Russia itself. For example, several religious groups, such as evangelical organizations, are banned in Russia.

The Russian occupation administration also tortures and unlawfully arrests ministers of various Christian denominations, except for priests of the UOC-MP (read more about this here).

If you are interested in receiving an extended version of our monitoring report, please fill out this brief questionnaire.

The Methodology

To monitor the information published on disinformation websites, we analyzed approximately 500,000 news reports collected from ~ 1,000 Russian websites. The data for the analysis was collected and provided by SemanticForce.

Each paragraph was processed using an algorithm which defines its topic automatically. The resulting topics (i.e. groups with similar content) were short-listed by the topics relating to the war or its consequences for Russia. The number of mentions of a certain topic was then counted for each publication. Our conclusions are based on the respective findings and the quotes from paragraphs referring to each topic.

This article was originally written in Ukrainian. It has been translated into English using AI tools such as DeepL, ChatGPT, and Grammarly. If you encounter an error that requires immediate attention, please inform us via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Your understanding and support are appreciated.

disinfomonitor durov disinformation eng telegram