Tech billionaire Pavel Durov’s arrest in France has reignited debate in Russia over the Telegram messenger app’s role in the war in Ukraine. The last round of discussion surrounding the issue came as recently as July, when the State Duma passed a law allowing new punishments for soldiers who use “civilian” devices while deployed. After a wave of criticism from pro-war bloggers and state media “war correspondents” who feared the new policy would leave Russian troops with no reliable means of communication, the law was watered down. Now, the same groups are discussing whether the “keys to Telegram” are at risk of being handed over to the West, and whether the messenger could be blocked by the Russian authorities. According to these commentators, Telegram has become the main communication tool of the war, linking various military branches and hierarchy levels into a single management, intelligence sharing, and target engagement complex, though this is a gross exaggeration. Meduza explains what we know about how the Russian military actually uses Telegram, what other programs its uses for battlefield communication, and why it still hasn’t developed its own platform to replace the Dubai-based app.
Yes, it was marketed in the dark web marketplaces as “the phone for criminals”
That app could run only on a special custom ROM. It was a dedicated phone, a Google pixel 4a with locked bootloader and a custom ROM that exclusively allowed to communicate with other anom users. You don’t buy a $2000 phone that could only communicate with other $2000 phones if you don’t have something to hide.
It might have happened that maybe a millionaire with disposable income bought a set to talk with his secret girl affair but those were definitely the minority
Yes, it was marketed in the dark web marketplaces as “the phone for criminals”
That app could run only on a special custom ROM. It was a dedicated phone, a Google pixel 4a with locked bootloader and a custom ROM that exclusively allowed to communicate with other anom users. You don’t buy a $2000 phone that could only communicate with other $2000 phones if you don’t have something to hide.
It might have happened that maybe a millionaire with disposable income bought a set to talk with his secret girl affair but those were definitely the minority