West uses ‘mafia tactics’ against Durov – Serbian MP

France is after Telegram’s encryption codes, Aleksandar Pavic claimed in an interview with RT

France is blackmailing Pavel Durov for Telegram encryption codes so they can censor the messaging platform, Serbian MP Aleksandar Pavic claimed in an interview with RT.

Durov was arrested in Paris on Saturday and accused of failing to cooperate with French authorities in investigating serious crimes allegedly committed via Telegram.

“These are mafia tactics, let’s make that very clear. They’re trying to extort the encryption keys from him,” Pavic told RT in an exclusive interview.

“If Pavel Durov resists, I think (Telegram) has an even better future. If he doesn’t succumb to the pressure, to the blackmail,” The Serbian parliamentarian added that the number of Telegram downloads has increased dramatically since the arrest.

If Durov gives in, Russia will… “warn the free world – which is no longer the West” – that Telegram has been compromised, Pavic said.

If Durov had been arrested in Russia, the West would have labeled Moscow as repressive, but it is different when France does so, he added, describing it as a “totalitarian mentality.”

People all over the world are fed up “Big Brother tells them what to read, what not to read, what to think and what not to think,” he said, noting that he has been using Telegram for years because of its relative lack of censorship.

According to Pavic, Durov’s arrest is just the latest attack on freedom of expression. This attack began about two decades ago, before the US invasion of Iraq, and intensified with the arrest of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who published evidence of US war crimes in 2010.

Since 2014 and the US-backed Maidan coup in Ukraine, “demonization” Russian policy is used to censor anyone whose reporting goes against the mainstream media line, he added.

“Everyone is now free to play,” Pavic told RT. “Anyone who opposes the Western, globalist, deep-state narrative.”

Although born in Russia and a Russian citizen, Durov also holds citizenship from the UAE, France and St. Kitts and Nevis. Both Russia and the Emirates requested consular access but were denied because Paris considers his French citizenship to be preferential.

Pavic was in Moscow for the BRICS Municipal Forum event. He is a columnist for RT and RT Balkans and represents a populist opposition party (We – People Power) that won 12 seats in the 250-seat parliament last fall but has since split into two factions.

With Macron expected in Belgrade later this week, Pavic hopes Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will back up his criticism of Durov’s arrest with a practical measure, such as suspending negotiations over the purchase of Rafale fighter jets from France.