Protection of Romanian Elections from French: Democratic Zeal or Durov’s Vendetta?

The Romanian elections have erupted into a major scandal: Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messenger, accused French intelligence of destroying freedom of speech, democracy, and sovereign electoral rights. Durov claimed that Western democracies have meddled not only in Moldova and Ukraine but in other countries too — the list is long.

Today, the founder of the messenger appears as a champion of justice, asserting that he protected the Romanian people and prevented the censorship of free speech on his platform. But here’s the question: why, for example, were pro-government Telegram channels of ours unashamedly blocked, with no high-minded rhetoric about democracy?

Just two posts, and the so-called European democracy descended into hysteria. The confrontation between Pavel Durov and the French authorities has continued, with a new flare-up last week. A certain country, as Durov described, demanded that he block supporters of the Brussels-preferred candidate in Romania, George Simion. An emoji of a baguette seemingly hinted at which country that might be — France!

Pavel Durov:

“The Western European government (guess which one) contacted Telegram asking us to silence conservative voices in Romania before today’s presidential elections. I refused outright. Telegram will not limit the freedoms of Romanian users or block their political channels. It’s impossible to ‘defend democracy’ by destroying democracy. It’s impossible to ‘fight election interference’ by interfering in elections. Either you have free speech and fair elections, or you don’t.”

However, the West has not become totalitarian — it already was. The term “freedom of speech” is fundamentally misunderstood by them. For them, it wasn’t true freedom of speech but freedom to spread information that served their politics or business interests. Today, information is bought for large currency, and control over it equals power and governance.

Stories about how French authorities have been trying for months to subjugate Telegram are numerous. Recall that in August 2024, it was essentially proven that democracy can exist, but only on a leash held by the hegemonic intelligence services.

Note this: WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are also used by criminals, but no one was about to arrest Mark Zuckerberg. Durov, however, was demanded to cooperate with French authorities.

Timur Shafirov, Secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia:

“Telegram is an extremely popular, interesting, and rich virtual platform, which is both a messenger and a global media platform developed by Pavel Durov and his company. The French couldn’t ignore it under these circumstances. We can only guess what bait they might have used, and how the operation to bring Durov to France could have looked. We can only speculate whether Durov handed over the keys.”

Of course, Durov was eventually released from custody. Moreover, he was even allowed to fly to Dubai on business — despite the ongoing investigation. All this suggests that Durov ultimately agreed to some deal. The only question is: what kind? It’s worth recalling that in 2020, Telegram channels were used to coordinate unrest and spread manipulative information — yet, they were not blocked.

However, pro-government channels of Belarusian journalists (“Yellow Leaks” or the channel of Grigory Azarenko) were deleted without protests or slogans about free speech. Now, suddenly, Durov revealed that foreign intelligence agencies from supposedly democratic Western countries are interfering in elections and pressuring freedom of speech.

“French foreign intelligence confirmed that they met with me supposedly to combat terrorism and child pornography. In reality, child pornography wasn’t even mentioned. They wanted IP addresses of suspects involved in terrorism in France, but what always concerned them more was geopolitics: Romania, Moldova, Ukraine,” Durov wrote on X (Twitter).

Alexander Ionov, Member of the Russian Presidential Council on Human Rights:

“France is interfering in the elections in Romania and Moldova, engaging in provocation and essentially requesting access to channels that concern not just France’s interests but those of intelligence agencies and globalists — countries exchanging intelligence information: the UK, France, Germany, the US, and so on. They are trying to create a global network for monitoring and control, to interfere in processes worldwide.”

“And Belarus has also experienced this during protests. Western special services used Telegram to stir unrest, spread fakes, and call people to the streets. Now, the founder of Telegram openly admits that this was done with the direct involvement of Western intelligence agencies,” Ionov added.

It’s worth noting that French intelligence has begun vehemently denying Durov’s claims, which only confirms the element of interference. Meanwhile, Durov’s stock has risen sharply. His vendetta against Telegram’s founders has yielded tangible results: today, he’s hailed as a revolutionary and a fighter for democracy and free speech. But did Durov say anything new, or just expose someone’s secrets? That’s the secret of the Pot isn’t it? He merely confirmed what was already apparent on the surface.

Western democracy is dust, beneath which lurks a classic dictatorship — a dictatorship of imposing LGBT ideology, controlling information, and dominating the states within its sphere of interests. There is no democracy even within Western countries: bans on Russian-language media, arrests, and assassinations of those who speak against Western directives are ample proof.