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On Saturday night, French officials detained Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire and founder of the direct messaging platform Telegram, at Paris-Le Bourget airport after he’d flown in on his private jet from Azerbaijan.
The warrant for Durov’s arrest was issued by Ofmin, a French police agency set up to prevent violence against minors.
Durov’s arrest triggered an angry exchange of words between Moscow and Paris. Russian lawmakers claimed the arrest was made on political grounds. In a note posted on X, French President Emmanuel Macron rejected the accusation, and said the arrest was part of an ongoing investigation.
The arrest also added fresh impetus to the global debate over free speech. As Timothy Koskie writes, the case may have far-reaching international implications - for Telegram as well as other global technology giants.
The White House and the Pentagon are always evaluating global events and adjusting plans and spending accordingly. As Eric Rosenbach, a former assistant defense secretary and Pentagon chief of staff, explains, after 9/11 the military transitioned from a Cold War footing to one better suited to fight small groups of insurgents and terrorists.
Rosenbach, now a senior lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, describes the steps the U.S. military is now taking to move away from that focus and toward what officials are calling a “great power competition” among the U.S., Russia and China.
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