MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. France has already faced a number of political consequences due to the detention of Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messenger, Andrey Bystritsky, board chairman of the Foundation for the Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club, has told TASS.
"The political consequences are already there. There has followed an immediate discussion about freedom of speech, about responsibility, about the limits of privacy and about what the modern communications world is, to what extent the authorities in Europe are going crazy about total control over their own society and information control in general. All of these discussions are having immediate political repercussions for France," he said.
In general, Bystritsky believes that the Durov affair in France is bound to last.
"I reckon that it has already evolved into a soap opera, and it is likely to last for a while. It will go on and on like this, with ever more personalities involved. Some action will be taken in relation to the company, too," Bystritsky speculated.
He also described the requested bail "non-critical" for Durov. "In all likelihood, they will keep an eye on him, so that he does not try to make a bolt," the expert pointed out. "This is a normal procedure. They started it all for a good reason. They have some kind of plan."
Durov's detention, charges he faces
On August 24, Durov was detained at Le Bourget airport in Paris. The next day his detention was extended to 96 hours. On Wednesday evening, his preliminary detention ended and the entrepreneur was taken to court, where a court investigator charged him with six counts including complicity in the administration of a network platform to enable illegal transactions as part of a criminal group. Such an offense, according to a statement from the Paris prosecutor's office, may be punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 euros.
The other counts include refusal to allow the authorities to intercept information under a lawful procedure, complicity in various crimes like providing software for the distribution of child pornography and drugs, and fraud. He is also accused of unregistered provision of cryptographic tools to provide a privacy function within his messenger, which was used for a broader purpose than just authentication of users.
According to the decision of the investigating judge who handled the case, Durov was placed under judicial supervision with an obligation to post a bail of 5 million euros. He was also ordered to report to the police twice a week and prohibited from leaving France.