“It is absurd to hold the owner responsible for the abuse of the messaging and social networking platform,” Telegram said in a statement.
With this note, Pavel Durov’s social media platform condemns the arrest in France of its founder. Billionaire Durov, nicknamed “Mark Zuckerberg of Russia,” was arrested at Le Bourget airport near Paris shortly after arriving on a private jet from Azerbaijan on Saturday evening.
Durov is still in custody: he can remain in custody for up to four days. Telegram, in a brief statement, did not provide any details about the arrest, but said the Dubai-based company complies with European Union laws and its moderation “meets industry standards and is constantly being improved.” Durov was arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation into an alleged wide range of crimes due to Telegram’s lack of moderators and lack of cooperation with police, a French police source told Reuters.
The investigation is being conducted by the gendarmerie’s cybersecurity unit and the French national police’s anti-fraud unit, the source said. He added that the judge in the probe specializes in organized crime.
“The decision to arrest Telegram founder Pavel Durov is not political,” Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X. X boss Elon Musk has argued in favor of Durov’s release. US media say Musk could suffer a similar fate if the Democrats win.
Rumble CEO Chris Pawlowski also left Europe following Pavel Durov’s arrest in France: “I’m a little late, but there’s a good reason: I just left Europe safe and sound. France threatened Rumble and now it has crossed the line by arresting Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, allegedly for failing to censor speech,” Pawlowski wrote on X.
The issue of freedom of speech and expression is at the center of discussion in traditional and social media; Telegram is full of all kinds of information, especially about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Regarding rumors about a possible meeting between Pavel Durov and Vladimir Putin in Baku, the Kremlin has categorically denied it: the two “did not meet during the Russian president’s recent visit to Baku,” Dmitry Peskov said.
The Kremlin spokesman added that the topic of negotiations with Ukraine has now lost its relevance. The actions will continue, as will the reprisals for Kursk and finally Putin will not meet Rafael Grossi when he visits the Kursk nuclear power plant.
Meanwhile, despite the sanctions, according to Russian data the Russian economy continues to grow at a good pace; GDP would have increased by 4.6% in the first six months of 2024.
In a televised speech, the Russian President spoke about the economy: “Unemployment in the Russian Federation remains at a record low: in June it was 2.4%; wage growth in the Russian Federation in real terms in January-May was 10.1%; over the seven months of this year, budget revenues approached 20 trillion rubles, two-thirds of which were non-oil and gas revenues (…) it is necessary to increase the effectiveness of coordinated actions of the government and the Central Bank to curb inflation. The successful completion of the SVO is, as I have said more than once, the main thing, the main condition for the implementation of long-term development plans for Russia,” Putin said.
On social media, Ukrainians burned the location of Western F-16 fighter jets. In a video about F-16 fighter jets, the Ukrainian Air Force accidentally revealed the location of the aircraft: the jets are at the Kolomyia military airfield in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.
The Ukrainian, Russian and Western social spheres, however, agree on one point: “The incident” with the video, could have been fabricated, to ensure the narrative about the use of the aircraft only from the territory of Ukraine (…) In reality, they could be flying from the airfields of neighboring NATO countries.”
On July 31, the Times reported that the first batch of F-16s had already arrived in Ukraine, including six Dutch planes. Later, it was claimed that most of the F-16s, as well as the support personnel to maintain them, would be located outside Ukraine. In particular, some aircraft were used for training, while more cells would provide a strategic reserve kept ready in allied countries in Europe.
The current Ukrainian Volodimyr Zelenskyy confirmed that they would provide the Ukrainian armed forces new batches of weapons.
As for the Kursk region, Russian authorities confirm that residents of the Kursk region affected by the emergency will be able to receive compensation of up to 1.5 million rubles.
Significant data on Ukrainian forces in the Russian Federation are starting to emerge: the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk direction on August 26 amounted to more than 400 people and 27 armored vehicles, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Russian troops repelled attacks in the direction of Kremyany, Malaya Loknya and Nechaev, and attempts to attack in the direction of Komarovka, Spalnoye, Korenevo, Pogrebkov and Olgovka were also thwarted.
According to the Russians, in total, during the fighting in the Kursk direction, the Ukrainians lost more than 6,200 men.
Russian Armed Forces launched a massive attack on energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine. The operational-tactical aviation of the Russian Armed Forces struck two drone factories of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and accumulations of manpower and equipment in 143 regions.
Explosions were recorded in the regions of Kiev, Kharkov, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Dnepropetrovsk, Khmelnitsky, Lutsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Transcarpathia and Odessa.
The Kiev hydroelectric power plant suffered serious damage as a result of a massive attack by the Russian Armed Forces.
Zelensky called the attack on Ukrainian power plants one of the largest in the entire conflict.
In Ivano-Frankivsk, explosions occurred at the airfield where American F-16 fighters were stationed, and in Stryi, Lviv region, the detonation began after the attack.
Several attacks occurred at the bases and training grounds of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Volyn, Poltava and Ternopil regions.
A number of regions and cities of Ukraine were left without electricity, including Lviv, Khmelnitsky, Rivne and Ivano-Frankivsk.
The Polish Air Force was relieved of a possible interception of Russian cruise and ballistic missiles.
Russian troops are advancing in the direction of Pokrovsk, occupying vast territories near the village of Yasnobrodovka, Ukrainian resource monitoring reports.
Air defense systems eliminated several UAVs in the Saratov region; there were cases of debris hitting residential buildings in Saratov and Engels.
And now a look at the front updated at 17:00 on August 26.
In the Odessa region, Russian troops attacked a warehouse south of the village of Usatovo and the eponymous power substation. After the arrivals, a wave of emergency power outages occurred throughout Odessa.
One of the Russian attacks hit the Khmelnitsky substation 330, which caused an emergency power outage in at least part of the Khmelnitsky region. In the administrative center, power outages caused trolleybus traffic to stop.
In the Sumy region, railway infrastructure was damaged, which is actively used by Ukrainian formations, including for the transfer of additional forces to the Russian border.
In the Dnepropetrovsk region, power infrastructure was attacked. There are also reports of an incident on the territory of the Dnepropetrovsk International Airport. Not far from Vinnitsa, according to monitoring, a fire was recorded on the territory of the Vinnitsa 750 substation. Another hit occurred at the Bar 330 substation.
Critical infrastructure was damaged in the Zhytomyr, Nikolaev, Poltava and Lviv regions. There is also unconfirmed information about the accident at the Trikhaty 330 substation in the Nikolaev region and at the Pervomaiskaya 330 substation in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
According to Ukrainian authorities and media, power outages occurred throughout Ukraine. At the same time, problems with water supply are recorded in seven regions: Dnepropetrovsk, Kiev, Vinnitsa, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Volyn and Lviv regions.
Ukrainian UAV strikes were then reported in Russian regions, while Russian troops were preparing to launch massive strikes on Ukrainian targets, Kiev forces carried out another drone launch against the rear regions of the Russian Federation. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 22 drones were intercepted in eight regions.
This time the main blow fell on the Saratov region, where the Volga Sky residential complex on Predmostovaya Square in Saratov and a multi-storey building in the center of Engels were attacked. Four civilians were injured, one woman was hospitalized in serious condition.
The enemy’s most likely target was the strategic airport of Engels’s aviation has already been repeatedly attacked by UAVs, which fly at a low enough altitude to minimize the possibility of detection.
Another Ukrainian drone was intercepted on approach to Yaroslavl while attempting to strike a local oil refinery. There were no injuries or casualties at the scene of the incident.
In the Belgorod region, on the Krasnaya Yaruga – Vyazovoe highway, two UAVs attacked a car: two civilians were injured and hospitalized.
Russian air defense systems were also activated in the Kursk, Bryansk, Tula, Oryol and Ryazan regions. According to preliminary information, there were no casualties there.
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Graziella Giangiulio
