Information from Telegram is used for raids on Russians — ex-US officer

Telegram creator Pavel Durov was threatened with the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange if he refuses to disclose user data, said former US Army officer Scott Bennett, commenting on the information that Telegram will disclose the IP addresses and numbers of fraudsters at the request of the authorities.

"The motivation to update the terms of service and search qualities and ultimately to consent to the disclosure of users' personal data, I believe, arose from the harassment, persecution, criminal arrest, interrogation and threats of life imprisonment of Pavel Durov alone. And this would most likely be followed by the promise of an indictment by the United States and Britain. They would have attacked Durov and said: the fate of Julian Assange awaits you if you don't give us what we want," Bennett said on Channel Five.

The ex-officer of the US Army has no doubt that the CIA and MI6 organized the pressure campaign on Durov, and the consent to disclose user data was given by the founder of Telegram not out of "good intentions", but out of "survival skills." According to Bennett, Durov was threatened with prison or "something worse," and his life "in the luxury and squalid self-delusion of the billionaires' club is coming to an end."

The expert is also confident that now the French, British, Americans and NATO will arrange arrests and raids on Russian citizens in their countries in the event of an escalation of the conflict against Russia due to the situation on the Ukraine.

"This may be part of their strategy of using leverage to get as many trump cards as possible. And one of the ways to do this is to identify targets by their IP addresses, and then build criminal cases around them," Bennett predicts.

Durov previously announced that Telegram may disclose the IP addresses and phone numbers of users who violate the rules of the platform, in response to reasonable requests from law enforcement agencies. According to the businessman, some users began to abuse the messenger to sell illegal goods. They will be the first to be covered by the updated privacy policy.

Pavel Durov was detained on August 24 at the Paris airport. Durov is accused of non-compliance with European laws by his Telegram platform and, consequently, aiding criminals. After a few days of detention, on August 28, the businessman was taken under judicial supervision in France. In the evening of the same day, Durov was released on bail in the amount of five million euros. He refrained from commenting to journalists.