The Durov brothers biographies match what we've seen in Poland during the communist era, namely secret collaborators of the security services. You could see how some people suddenly got better cars than the rest of society, were allowed to travel around the world, and, after transformation, got hired in western banks, the media, or even became prime ministers.
I can understand why you would make such a comparison, but in this particular case it doesn't exactly match, imo. We also do not live in communist era anymore. There is no need to be secret collaborators to get a lot of wealth. Not long ago there was a special time when brilliant guys could indeed get a lot of wealth without even breaking the law or doing anything corrupt. Not saying that what you describe doesn't happen, just that it doesn't always need to happen. In this particular case
it did happen,
to a degree. See the story below. As always,
the devil is in the details.
Back then when Roscomnadzor stopped bugging Durov, I thought that they indeed reached some sort of agreement. It's possible that Durov didn't even need to "pass the encryption keys" to FSB or anyone, but maybe he agreed to be more attentive to whatever was going on in the chats, and perhaps more willing to cooperate in case of specific requests. But then maybe not, because he left Russia in 2014 and vowed never to return. This appears to be his main mistake.
It is also possible to see from what
Zhirinovski said to Durov when Zhirinovski was still alive in 2018, that the Russian government respects Durov and wants to be on good terms with him. Zhirinovski was well known as a person who could say things others couldn't. And in this recording Zhirinovski congratulated Durov on his birthday and said that he is being called home, back to Russia. Zhirinovski asked him for how long he is planning on being abroad, while it's clear that he isn't being accepted there.
This shows that Russians probably saw or knew what was going on behind the scenes with the Big Data companies. Maybe they even followed closely Durrov's attempts to establish himself in the US before moving to Dubai in 2017. That's why they sent him a hint through Zhirinovski in 2018. That's also a proof that he wasn't a direct collaborator, imo.
Also, if you know Russian, or can understand it,
here's a video interview with Andrey Masalovich. He is one of the most knowledgeable persons in Russia when it comes to information and cyber security. He has undeniable ties to various Russian agencies and deep knowledge regarding various things that happen behind the curtain.
According to him, Durov made a stupid mistake because he himself knew for quite awhile that he shouldn't go to Europe, and that he could be detained. It looks that he is being used as an example of what can happen if you don't cooperate. He also said that Telegram is already for quite awhile being an instrument of NATO, so it's not clear what kind of danger it could pose to Russian military forces, because they are supposed to immediately delete any sensitive information anyway. If they didn't, they should do it asap.
He also said that it is quite possible that FBI and others already can access Telegram, but there are some things that they still can't do, and that's why it would be great to have all the "encryption keys" and such.
Signal is still pretty good in that regard, especially its fork, Molly. Signal Desktop should be avoided at all costs. I do understand that, at some point, Signal was founded by intelligence, but one of the developers of the cryptographic algorithm is also responsible for Wireguard's encryption, which was reviewed many times and is included in the Linux kernel.
Isn't Signal an Israeli creation? Also Masalovich in
another video shared that at some point creators of Signal had a conflict with their Israeli bosses, and Israeli bosses cracked Signal just to show them who's really the boss.
In short, any app that becomes widespread and is used for communicating will be compromised very quickly - otherwise, it wouldn't be "allowed" to be popular.
Indeed. I remember Masalovich saying in one of his videos, that if we hear from various agencies or as a rumor on the net that any particular messenger is "safe" atm and agencies can't crack it, it means that they cracked it awhile ago, but it serves them to give others a false sense of security.
He also said the following about Telegram and Durov
here in the interview that was done 3 months ago after Masalovich watched the interview with Tucker.
According to Masalovich, Pavel's older brother had an intellectual influence on him, and it taught him how to think in an original way. When he created VK, he did try to make it similar to FB, but also added phone identification. His brother also helped him a lot with the technical side. Only 20% of VK belonged to Pavel, the rest belonged to the investors.
The first idea of Telegram was born in 2011. It was during the
Bolotnaya protests in Russia. The idea was to help coordinate protests, and it was done through VK. Back then Durov sincerely thought that internet was a "kingdom of freedom" and was very surprised when Omon (special police unit) came to visit him because of all the groups on VK that were coordinating protests.
Based on Masalovich's description, it was a strange case because Durov got really scared and decided not to open the door, and Omon didn't persist, because back then there were no laws that could allow to open the door by force. But afterwards supposedly a conversation was shared online between Surkov (former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia) and Durov, where Durov asked Surkov to let him be, because he already cooperates well enough by disclosing certain protesting groups or names, and he can't do more, because it would tarnish his image of "freedom lover" and he would be forced to encourage people to use FB, or something like this. It's not clear if this communication is true, but apparently there is a full version of it on the net.
But this was the moment when he became a public figure. There were a lot of investors and a lot of money. It was also the time when Durov realized that next time he wouldn't be let go so easily. He wanted to have a more secure conversation and decided to work on creating an encrypted chat platform. First he built it similarly to Whatsapp. The difference was that Whatsapp didn't have its data saved on servers, and it influenced the speed of communication. Durov also invented his own encryption.
At some point between 2013-2017 he needed more money and more investors for VK, and one of the investors was mail.ru. And investors started telling him what to do. And this is when he decided to sell his share of VK.
He also decided to make Telegram international and left Russia. This is when he found out that "evil Russian intelligence agencies" weren't the only ones and not the most evil. His next stop was London, then Berlin, then Singapour, but at every stop he got a visit from the authorities, and they let him know that he has to cooperate.
In 2018 he was told by Iran that he has to share the encryption keys, or Telegram will be banned. He refused. So officially Telegram is banned in Iran, but apparently it is still the most popular mode of communication in Iran. They just use VPN and such.
According to Masalovich for many years now there is a sort of "balance". Durov says to everyone that he is a "freedom fighter", but at the same time it's possible to see from court procedures that intelligence agencies have access somehow and present chat records from Telegram.
How it is being done, and why Telegram provides an illusion of secured communication?
Very rough explanation that there are 2 levels of encryption. One is client server and client client. They exchange keys and communicate through a protected protocol. Even at the server side it's technically not possible to intercept it.
The top layer of encryption is encrypted properly, with a 2048-bit encryption and AES encryption algorithm. So why there is only an illusion of security?
As it happens, most of the traffic, beside secret chats, is essentially "open"and is being encrypted by the server. Also back in 2018 apparently there was a huge scandal that all the information was saved on the server and wasn't even encrypted. Apparently it was saved in a messy, sort of encrypted way, but one person was able to demonstrate that it was possible to create a script that could organize the data (connect phone numbers with their accounts, etc.)
This is when Telegram team declared that they never promised security on their Desktop version. If you want real security, use secret chats. The main problem with that, that if a person you talk with decides to switch to the Desktop version, that's it, there is no security anymore. So there are plenty of holes.
Also he claims that the story about FBI, the one Durov shared with Tucker, probably for show and an attempt to cover the fact that FBI were indeed able to add their own tool that allows them to get access to secret chats.
But there is another nuance. For investigators often what is most important is not the exact text of the communication, but with whom people are talking, In what groups they are members, and where exactly they are located during their conversations. And this kind of data has much less security.
And so after the "January 6 Capitol attack" in 2021 FBI presented in court a document with communications that were clearly obtained without court order. They ware obtained as part of "lawful access".
Apparently there is an existing agreement between FBI and 10 main chat platforms, even Signal and Chinese vchat, to provide certain information, and Telegram was also on this list. Chinese vchat, for example, has a rule that if it is Chinese citizen, they share nothing. But they share everything if it's anyone else.
I searched online to understand what this "lawful access" is, and found
this official document in English on the Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs. It says there:
Another cause for concern for the human rights community is the draft Lawful access to encrypted data act (LAEDA), introduced in the Senate in June 2020. According to the developers, the bill aims to ban encryption algorithms in mobile devices and applications, as well as to introduce obligations for Internet companies to assist law enforcement agencies in accessing encrypted information. In fact, according to experts, the document would threaten the privacy and security of users' personal data, since it legitimizes the practice of intelligence services to hack into cell phones and read users' personal data. Another danger of the draft is that the ban on encryption gives attackers access to users' personal information.
[323]
The systemic abuses of USA intelligence agencies, which engage in widespread mass surveillance of citizens, also show signs of racial profiling.
Anyways, Durov left US too, because he didn't realise that this is how "freedom" really looks like. He moved to Dubai and tried not to leave it. Masalovich said that he was told by a smart person once that true freedom is not running without a pack, but freedom to choose one's pack.
And so 3 months ago Masalovich also hinted that Durov better choose his pack. He said that he considers Durov a genius with clear organizational abilities of all the processes, but that it is his life and his choices. And he again reiterated that Durov's talk with Tucker probably wasn't a totally organic conversation, but rehearsed. Probably Durov needed to present and share certain points.
So it looks to me that Durov miscalculated in his attempt to remain "a free citizen of the world". He was told or hinted numerous times by the Russian side to abandon the unrealistic and naive idea of "freedom" and come home, because only here he will be truly "safe".
There is also a persisting rumor that was sort of confirmed by Peskov, that Durov was in Baku at the same time Putin was there, and Durov asked for a meeting with Putin, but Putin refused. Durov's next destination from Baku was Paris where he was detained.
New Directive from Putin: A Russian Telegram Clone in One Month
Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of a Russian version of Telegram following the arrest of Pavel Durov in France, a situation that could compromise national security, particularly for the armed forces.
Putin demands results in a month.
. I wouldn't be surprised if Putin knew and let it happen...
