France Arrested Durov on Instruction from the USA, Says Former CIA Analyst

In France, the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov was carried out at the direction of the United States. This opinion was expressed by former CIA analyst Larry Johnson during a broadcast on Dialogue Works, according to RT.

According to him, there are 12 charges against Durov. Out of those 12, 11 are combinations of participations in various activities. Essentially, he is being accused of everything that has occurred on his platform. However, one of the charges stands out for particular attention.

Specifically, Johnson noted a formulation that he described as "quite interesting": "Refusal to provide information or documents necessary for the legal interception and execution authorized by law at the request of law enforcement agencies." The former analyst pointed out that, according to his information, there is no law in France that requires obtaining permission from an authorized judge to intercept someone's conversations. However, such a law exists in the USA.

This means that, at least theoretically, there is a strict boundary separating law enforcement agencies from intelligence services. "Certainly, the US intelligence community does not need permission to intercept people's conversations; they do this freely, regardless of whether the individuals are Americans or foreigners. It is assumed that they should not be intercepting Americans, but they do listen in. This fact was brought to light by Edward Snowden over ten years ago," emphasized the former CIA employee.

However, to use the information obtained in court, the intelligence service would still have to acquire legal authorization. For this reason, Johnson has a clear impression that it was indeed the USA that requested Telegram to allow interception of one of the platform's users and did not succeed.